


Simple Kind of Life

by jenasys



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 43,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6938245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenasys/pseuds/jenasys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leah Clearwater never liked Bella Swan. So when she goes to the bonfire on First Beach and imprints on her-Bella, Edward, Leah and Jacob get thrown head first into a world of drama.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

(Leah's POV)  
On one hand, I was excited about tonight. I had never been to one of the La Push bonfires before. On the other hand, I hated the idea of going. And I had three good reasons not to go. 

Reason one to stay home: Billy was going to tell the Quileute legends of how the sons of the elders turn into wolves and protect our people. He was going to talk about how the sons whom were chosen to become wolves were brave and how they saved the tribe before. Nowhere in the legends does it say anything about a girl werewolf, which is what I am: the only one ever, in the history of our tribe. I was the first freak to be born.

Reason two to stay home: Sam and Emily would be there. Emily was my best friend and Sam was my fiancée. Emphasis on the 'was'. Now they're together. I was betrayed by my best friend and the one person I had ever really loved.

It was bad enough I had to see into Sam's mind and see how much he loved Emily. I didn't need to sit across from them for a whole night and watch them do goo-goo eyes at each other. I didn't need to hear Sam whisper in her ear and tell her he loved her. I didn't need to see it, but I would. The only reason I could give you: I've learned to love the abuse. I would rather have Sam be happy with my cousin and former best friend than be miserable and bitter like me.

Reason three to stay home: Bella Swan. Jacob has some obsession with her that I cannot wrap my head around no matter how hard I try. I had never liked Bella Swan anyway. When she started dating that leech, I may have even started to hate her. Now though, I really did hate her for what she was putting Jake through. She doesn't deserve Jake. She jerks him around like a toy and leaves him begging for her to love him. Then she runs off to her bloodsucker. I couldn't understand why Jake puts up with her, and then I realized that Jake, like me, has learned to love the abuse. He'd rather have her anyway he can get her than nothing at all.

My mother broke into my thoughts by opening my bedroom door. "Leah?" She asked softly. I looked up at her. "It's time to go, are you ready?"

Sure why not. Why not go and listen to Billy praise us for being wolves when it was for that reason my father died. The day I phased, my father saw me and had a heart attack. I killed him. I didn't answer my mother, just stood up from my bed and smoothed out my black baby doll dress and followed her out of the room.

My little brother was standing at the bottom of the stairs. No matter what the rest of the pack said or did to me, my little brother was the only one of them I didn't detest. He understood why I acted the way I did. He had been there for me when Sam left me for Emily. I was a different person around Seth than I was with the pack. The pack knew me as a bitch, because that's what I was. I would rather have all of them think I was a bitch so they wouldn't see just how much pain I was constantly in.

Seth had his back to me, so I leaped off of the stairs and onto his back. "Giddyup, Sethy!" I said as I laughed.

Seth dropped down on all fours and ran around the couch, neighing like a horse. Mom called, "Children! Act your age!" I could hear the smile in her voice, so I knew she wasn't mad at us. Seth walked over to the door and dropped flat on his face at mom's feet. I stood up and poked him in the ear with my big toe.

"Ah! Lee! Don't put your nasty toes in my ears!"

I laughed. "Please, it should be me worried about what's growing in your ears that's going to infect my toe." He stood up and glared at me, but then started laughing. He was such a goofball, he could never really get mad about anything.

Mom just had to go and kill my good mood, "Kids, let's go. Everyone's waiting for us." Right, the bonfire. My mood instantly went sour and the scowl was back on my face in a second. Mom caught the abrupt change in my expression and looked up at me with sad eyes.

My mom was a pretty good height for a woman. She was a little over five foot seven. I used to be her height, maybe just an inch or so shorter. Then of course, I phased into a werewolf. Now I'm six feet tall; much taller than the rest of the girls in town. The boys in the pack were six-four and up. Even my baby brother Seth was about six-five. 

Seth threw his arm around my shoulder and then said in his best impression of a mob boss, "Don't worry Lee. Anyone says anything to you, we'll make em sorry they looked at ya!"  
Mom and I laughed at Seth being silly, then mom opened the door and ushered us out. Mom got into the front seat of the car and placed a few bowls of food next to her.

She forced Seth and I to sit in the back so she could keep us out of the food easier. That was another thing I hated about being a werewolf; my appetite. A girl should not eat more than the average man. I did though, like the freak I am. It's to the point where I don't eat in public anymore. While the rest of the girls were eating just one cheeseburger or maybe two slices of pizza I was eating four or five burgers and a whole large pizza.

On the way to First Beach, Seth reached over and pulled on my chin length hair. I growled at him. He growled back. I flicked him in the nose. He pulled on my ear lobe. I twisted his nipple. He pinched my cheek. I vaguely heard mom tell us to behave and that we had arrived at the beach. I leaned over to retaliate, but Seth opened his door and jumped out. I leapt out right behind him, leaving mom to shut the door.

Seth started to run down the beach the opposite direction of the bonfire, but I quickly caught up to him and pounced. I had him in a headlock. He tried to shake me off, but I held tighter. Seth started to pull my arms off of him but I knocked him to the ground and started tickling him. He was laughing and screaming at the same time.

Finally he yelled, "Truce! Truce! Please stop!" I stood up and helped him to his feet. Mom giggled behind us. Seth and I turned around to find her and Old Quil watching us have our sibling-wrestling match. They were both smiling at us.

"Are you two done? Can we join the others now?" Mom asked with a smile. She waved her hand toward where the others were sitting. They were completely oblivious to us.

Seth ran down the beach yelling, "FOOD!" I could see that everyone else was here, so we were the last to arrive. I walked down to the bonfire behind mom. I still had the carefree expression on my face that I had when I was wrestling with Seth, but as soon as I caught sight as Sam with his arm around Emily, the scowl was back and my eyes went cold again.  
The wind shifted just then, the sweet scent of a vampire filled my nostrils. I knew that scent, Edward Cullen. Great, Bella's here.

I tried to hold my breath as we closed the distance to the others. Mom and Old Quil went over to Sam while I went to find a place to sit. When I looked up to see if I could sit somewhere that was away from everyone else, when I was distracted by the most beautiful pair of brown eyes. They were the deepest brown I had ever seen; a sea of chocolate that I was suddenly drowning in. A million invisible steel cables sprang from my heart and wrapped around the soul who those eyes belonged to. My heart, my soul, and my life now belonged to this person. My stomach turned when I realized what had happened; that I had just imprinted.

I was so lost in those eyes I couldn't even tell who my imprint was. My eyes finally looked at their face and I started to shake. I had been staring into the eyes of Bella Swan.

(Bella's POV)  
The bonfire was so much fun. Everyone treated me like I belonged there. I felt like I did. I was sitting next to Jake when I saw Seth Clearwater run down the beach, his sister Leah was right behind him. She pounced on him and they wrestled for a little bit. That's sweet, I thought. I heard Leah's been a frigid bitch ever since Sam broke up with her for Emily. 

At least her relationship with her brother hasn't changed much.

My eyes met Leah's then. My heart jumped a little. She was staring at me, her mouth hanging open. It felt like it was pulling me in Seth and Leah's direction. Her expression changed then and she looked confused. She never took her eyes off of me. I know she isn't fond of me and probably wasn't happy that I was here. Feeling a little down, I turned back to Jake, who was on his ninth hot dog.

"Having fun?" He asked. I nodded, smiling brightly. Paul, who was sitting on Jake's other side, started talking to Jake so I used that time to look around at everyone else. Sam and Emily were standing close together. I felt a pang of sadness in my heart for Leah. She has to see them together everyday and know that she wasn't good enough for Sam. With a sigh, I turned back to see where Seth and Leah were. Seth was at the food table stuffing his face. Sue and Old Quil were talking with Sam and Emily. I looked back to see Leah standing a few feet away from our group, staring at me and shaking like a tuning fork.

"Um, Jake," I leaned over to him. "What's wrong with Leah?"

He looked over at Leah and shrugged. I knew she didn't like me, but does the very sight of me make her angry enough to go wolf? I looked down feeling oddly saddened by the thought Leah could hate me that much.

Sam must have noticed Leah's expression, because he went over and talked to her. My poor human ears couldn't hear what was being said, but Jake growled next to me. He jumped up and stood in front of me.

"NO!" He shouted. Everyone was aware of the situation by now. I stood up too.

Leah's eyes started to fill with tears. "You know it's not my choice Jake! I don't want it anymore than you do!"

"What's wrong Jake?" I asked.

Sam answered for him, "Nothing's wrong Bella."

Emily was alarmed now, "Well what happened? What's going on?"

Sam glanced at me, then back to Emily and said, "Leah imprinted."

"On who?" Kim asked.

All at the same time, Jake looked down at me, Sam looked at me again and Leah glared at me. I didn't catch on at first. Oh.

My mouth dropped open. "Leah imprinted on…me?"

Sam nodded. Oh fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

(Leah's POV)  
She stood there next to Jake just staring at me. She didn't look mad or repulsed that she just found out her soul mate is not only a werewolf but is a girl. I glanced over to see my mom and Emily smiling at me. That did it. I snapped.

"What the fuck! How in the fucking hell is it possible I imprinted on Bella Swan?! For one, Jake is in love with her, she's dating that bloodsucker and oh yeah, I pretty much hate her! Why the hell does fate keep fucking me over! I had the perfect life! I had a best friend who was there for me for everything." I pointed to Emily and she looked away. "I had a fiancée I was in love with and was going to marry!" Sam looked away like Emily had. "Then my fiancé imprints on my best friend and they fuck me over! Score one for fate. Then I turn into a giant fucking dog! Fate-2, me-0. Then my dad dies, Fate-3, me-0. Now I fucking imprint on Bella Swan?" I looked around to see everyone staring at me, but I was nowhere near done. I turned to Bella. "So, Bella, how's your bloodsucker going to take losing you to a werewolf? By the way how does it feel to find out your soul mate is a werewolf? Not only a werewolf, but also a girl? You're a lesbian, did you even realize that? Cause it's a huge fucking shock for me!"

It was deadly quiet as I finished my rant. I barely heard Embry say, "Whoa."

I huffed and then turned to leave. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to come here tonight. Actually, I had three and Bella was one of them! So I did what I'm best at; run. When I reached the woods I phased. Before long I reached my house; I went up to my room, thankful that no one followed me there. I flopped down on my bed, madder than I had ever been. Even after everything I had said down on the beach, I only meant a little of it. Well, I meant all of it, but now I couldn't stop thinking about Bella. There was a pull on my heart that was telling me to go back to her. It felt like someone literally had their hand on my heart and was pulling me back to her. I ignored it and rolled over to go to sleep.  
\-----------------------------------  
(Bella's POV)  
I didn't know what to say after Leah's rant. My mouth just had a mind of it's own when it said, "She hates me."

Sam turned to me and said, "No, she doesn't hate you. She's just surprised is all. She'll come around."

Next to me, Jared said, "Yeah, she can't fight it forever."

Jake turned to me and said, "Come on, I'll take you home."

As we were walking away, Quil said, "Man I can't wait till they get together. If Leah is anything like Jared and thinks about Bella all the time." Jake growled, but then I heard Quil yelp and Sam tell him to shut up.

"So what do you think Edward's gonna say when he finds out you're not soul mates after all?" Jacob asked in a sad voice.

I shrugged. "Probably the same as you." Jake snorted, but didn't say anything.

If I was being honest with myself, that was one conversation I was not looking forward to. I figured Edward wouldn't know right away, so I could have a few days to think about how I was going to handle telling him Leah imprinted on me. Before I could tell him anything I had to figure out myself what I wanted from Leah. Jacob drove me to the treaty line where Edward was waiting for me. I could only hope Jake was hiding his thoughts well enough so Edward wouldn't know about Leah until I told him.

Slowly, I climbed out of Jake's car and waved to him as I climbed into the Volvo. "Did you have fun?" Edward asked. I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. Edward took this as a sign that I was tired, but really I just didn't want to talk. Something was different now than when he had dropped me off a few hours earlier. The imprint was obviously to blame for this.

Normally I would have felt unworthy of being in his presence. He looked like a model; beautiful, flawless. Looking at him now I could see how pale he truly was. His voice when he spoke to me was like velvet pouring from his mouth. His words were silk caressing my soul. Now when he spoke to me, I noticed his voice had a slightly higher pitch than Jasper's. Something was different. 

"What's wrong, love?" Edward asked. Before tonight, or even just this morning, I would have killed my whole family for Edward to call me love. It was in this moment I realized how obsessed I was with him. It wasn't healthy at all. And I didn't want him to call me 'love' anymore. That term of endearment wasn't meant for him to say to me.

I shook my head. "Just tired."

He smiled a little, then reached over and grabbed my hand. The iciness of it shouldn't have surprised me. I couldn't help but think of Jake's warmth, which ultimately made me think of Leah's warmth. I wonder if this was the imprinting already pushing me in her direction. On top of its coldness, I just didn't like the feel of Edward's hand in mine. It almost felt wrong. Edward opened the door for me, of course.

The lights were on in the living room, so I knew Charlie was up and probably watching out the window. I hugged Edward, trying to ignore the feeling in my chest that was telling me to pull away as soon as we made contact.

He whispered in my ear, "I'll be waiting for you in your room." He released me and then got into his car. I turned and walked to the house. Charlie met me at the door.  
"Hey Bells. Did you have fun?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I had a great time. Jake and his friends are awesome."

Charlie smiled. "Well, you should go down there and see them more often. I'm going to bed." He went up to his room. I wandered into the kitchen and tried to find something to clean up. I was stalling. I didn't want to face Edward. I wasn't ready to tell him about Leah, but I knew I would have to eventually.

After about a half an hour of tinkering around, I finally went upstairs, but I went into the bathroom and showered slowly. When I walked into my room, Edward was there, naturally. I forced a smile. He smiled back, but his wasn't forced. He patted the bed next to him, so I went and lay down next to him. He pulled me close to him and draped a blanket over us. A voice in the back of my head told me that I would never need a blanket if it were Leah here instead of Edward.

I ignored the cold from Edward and focused on the warmth. I soon fell asleep in Edward's arms.

The next morning I woke up, Edward was sitting in the rocking chair, like he always was. He smiled at me again, showing his bright teeth. "Morning, love."

"Morning." I said through a yawn.

He chuckled a little. "Emmett wants to hunt with me before school tomorrow, so I need to go. What are you planning on doing today?"

I shrugged. "Maybe go down and hang out with Jake a little." His face fell. I got a little angry. "Don't give me that look, I'm spending all day tomorrow with you, you can let me spend a little time with Jake."

Edward huffed. "You saw him last night."

I rolled my eyes. "So? Are you saying I can only see him one day a week? Besides, you know it would make Charlie happy if I hung out with him."

"It would also make Charlie happy if you married Jacob, but you aren't planning on doing that are you?" He asked, a little angry.

I shook my head, "No! Why would you think that?"

He looked out the window and stood up. "I have to go. I'll see you later." He walked over and kissed my lips, then was gone.

I got out of bed and showered quickly. I didn't want to smell like a vampire to the wolves. I went downstairs; Charlie was surprisingly sitting on the couch.

"Hey dad, I'm going to see Jake." I said and started toward the door.

"Wait, Bells." He called. I turned back. "I'll come with you. There's a game on so Billy wanted me to come watch it with him. I was just about to head down there when you came down." He smiled at me, which I returned happily. We walked out the door and got into Charlie's cruiser. Silence comfortably settled between us. When we reached Billy's, we both went inside. Billy rolled out of the kitchen to greet us.

"Well hello Bella, haven't seen you in a few hours." He said, winking at me. "Did you come down to see Jake or Leah?" Oh my god, I can't believe he just asked me that in front of Charlie.

Blush crept across my face. Charlie turned back to me, "Leah? Are you and the Clearwater girl friends now?" He had a hopeful glint in his eye. I guess he thought the more friends I had in La Push, the less time I would spend with Edward.

I shrugged at his question. I was about to answer, but Billy did it for me. "Oh, yeah. Leah and Bella ran into each other last night at the bonfire. I have a feeling they're gonna be spending a lot more time together." He gave me another sly smile.

Billy and I shared a knowing look as Charlie went to sit on the couch. Billy nodded to the backdoor, "Jake's out in the garage. I'm surprised he didn't call you back there when you got here."

I smiled and turned away from his wise eyes then went out to the garage. Jake was working on his motorcycle. "Hey Jake." I said.

He turned around and smiled a little. "Hey Bells."

I sat down on the hood of his car. There was an awkward silence between us and I didn't like it. There was never any awkwardness between Jake and I. Wanting to break the silence I asked, "So last night was weird, huh?"

Jacob slammed down the wrench and said, "Yeah. Weird. So what did you tell your bloodsucker?"

I stared at him. "Nothing."

Jake glared at me. "Why? I get it that you wouldn't break up with him for me, but Leah imprinted on you. She is your soul mate, you are her other half. You belong with her, are you telling me you're going to fight the imprint? It won't work, I'll tell you that. Sam already tried it when he imprinted on Emily. You can't do it. And Leah has been wanting to imprint for so long, I won't let you hurt her." He yelled at me.

For a minute I could only stare at him. "Jake, I don't know what to tell him. I mean Leah didn't exactly have the best reaction last night. If I recall correctly, she said she hated me and then ran off. I need to know what Leah and I are before I break up with Edward."

He didn't look happy about this, but he accepted it. "Whatever. I think you should talk to Leah about it, though."

I nodded. "I know. I'll talk to her in a few days when she's had time to calm down and get used to the idea of being stuck with me. It's just going to be so weird, you know."

Jake laughed. "Quil is more excited about the imprint than anyone though."

I nodded again. "Yeah, I heard him last night when we were leaving. I guess he's waiting on some hot lesbian action for his spank bank?"

Jacob laughed. "I think we all are." He said quietly. I ignored this. "You know, an imprint is a wolf's soulmate but it doesn't have to mean a romantic relationship. You could just be friends." He looked too hopeful when he said this.

"I know this, Jake," I replied softly. It was hard to tell what I wanted when I didn't really know Leah that well. A few minutes later, Charlie poked his head around the corner.

"Hey kids, Sue Clearwater just called and invited us down to eat with them. Let's go." Then he left.

I looked at Jake. He smiled. "It's now or never Bells."

Fuck my life.


	3. Chapter 3

(Bella's POV)

All the way to the Clearwater's house, my heart was constricting with fear that Leah would say something nasty in front of Charlie. I just wanted her to at least like me a little bit.  
When we pulled into the driveway, I felt like a hand was around my heart pulling me toward the house, toward Leah. Jacob and I trudged into the house behind Charlie and Billy. From the sounds of it, the entire pack was here. Great, just what I needed. 

Sue met us at the door. When she saw me, her eyes filled with tears and she hugged me tightly. "I know you'll break down Leah's tough exterior enough to get to her heart," she whispered in my ear. When she pulled back, she wiped away her tears and pushed Jake and I toward the living room. Sue and Billy took Charlie into the kitchen, where I could see Emily and Kim cooking something.

As soon as I stepped into the living room, three things happened at once. My eyes immediately found Leah without me having to search for her, her eyes snapped up to meet mine, and everyone in the room fell silent, watching us. I smiled at her. The corners of her lips twitched before she turned away.

Sam cleared his throat. "Hey, Bella. How are you?" 

I smiled back. "I'm okay."

"How did things go with Eddie-boy?" Seth asked excitedly. 

"Actually, I didn't talk to him yet," I replied, looking at my feet. This wasn't something I wanted to talk about right off the bat.

"Why not?" Jared asked curiously, glancing between Leah and I.

"Is that really your business?" Leah snapped before I could speak.

Jared held his hands up in surrender.

"I just wasn't sure what to say," I finally answered.

"I could help you, if you want," Sam chimed in again. "Help you break it easy." His eyes flickered to Leah then.

It seemed Leah had all she could take. Silently, she stood up and began walking toward the door. She touched my arm as she went, indicating I should follow. Outside, she started walking quickly. I followed behind her. Leah had led me toward the beach, when we got there, she led me to a piece of driftwood, and we sat down.

I didn't know what to say to her, just like I didn't know what to say to Edward. Neither of us said anything for a long moment. "Sorry for dragging you away from the party," she finally said without looking at me. "I just couldn't take anymore questions. You didn't look like you wanted to either."

"No, not really," I answered quietly. "I don't really know what to say to anyone. Not to them, Edward or you." So I finally blurted out, "What are we Leah?"

"Nothing." Was her cold answer.

"Why not?" I asked, my voice wavering a little.

She looked at me and asked, "Why would you?"

I shrugged. "You interest me. I want to know more about you." She smiled at this.

"What about your bloodsucker?" She growled a little.

I shrugged yet again. "What about him? It's obvious I'm not meant for him." I smiled a little to show her I was accepting this imprint as long as she was.

She stared back at me a moment then looked back at the ocean. "You know an imprint doesn't have to be romantic right?" Now she looked up at me. 

I smiled back at the hopeful glint in her eyes. "I know, Jake explained everything before. Why don't we just be friends?" 

"Friends sounds good." She looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry about everything I said at the bonfire last night. I didn't mean it. Well, I meant what I said about Sam and Emily and turning into a wolf and all. And I guess I meant what I said about you dating the bloodsucker. Now that I think about it I'm not really sorry I said it. I am sorry it hurt you, though."

Slowly, I reached out and touched her arm. "It's okay."

"It's not, it's really not. I'm not supposed to hurt my imprint. And what's worse is I could feel that it hurt you and I couldn't do anything about it." Leah shook her head.

"I forgive you," I said honestly. "I know you were upset about imprinting on me. Jake told me you'd wanted to imprint so you wouldn't have Sam on your mind so much and I know I was the last person you expected."

"That's an understatement." She leaned over and hugged me tightly. I tried to hug her back just as tight, but I wasn't as strong as her. She released me and stood up. "Shall we go back then?" She held out her hand and I took it. She laced our fingers together for a minute, and then let go of my hand. We walked back to her house smiling and laughing a little. Leah actually was quite funny.

When we walked back into the house, everyone turned to us with a smirk on his or her face. Charlie smiled, "Hey Bells. You and Leah have a nice walk?"

I nodded. "Yeah dad."

He smiled. "Good to see you finding a girlfriend outside of Angela and Alice." Quil smirked when Charlie said girlfriend. I looked down at my feet, trying to think of what to say to that.

Leah answered for me, "Yeah, Charlie, Bella and I are becoming great friends." She smiled at me, her eyes twinkling a little. Charlie went back to eating. Sue watched us with tears in her eyes again.

Quil said, "That's hot." Leah and I pulled our gaze from each other and glared at Quil. Sue handed me a plate and I went to eat.

After we had finished eating, Leah said, "Bella, come here. I want to show you my room."

I saw Quil glance up with a mischievous look on his face. Sam glared at him, effectively shutting him up. I walked up the stairs behind Leah and went into her room behind her.  
It was nice, very un-Leah. The walls were a hunter green color, the carpet was just as dark and it matched well. She had posters hung on her walls of different bands, such as Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park, Craving Lucy and Dropkick Murphys. She certainly had an interesting taste in music.

Her bed was large and had a black silk bedspread. The floor had dresses, sports bras and shorts lying everywhere. There was a little pile in the corner of shredded clothes. Leah closed the door behind us and went to sit on her bed; I followed behind her. She swept her hand through the air, "So what do you think?" She asked it so simply, but the look in her eyes told me her whole world depended on my opinion.

I smiled softly at her, "I like it. It's nice." She exhaled deeply, like a silent sigh of relief.

She sat back on her elbows and asked, "So, as you can see, I go through a lot of clothes." She laughed a little. I joined in with her, enjoying the sound we made a little too much.

"It looks like it." I said softly.

She looked over at me. "Do you want to go shopping with me tomorrow after school? We can go to Port Angeles. I know Jake told me you hate shopping, but I need to get some clothes and I hate going alone. Since I don't hang out with Emily anymore there's really no one else to go with me. And we can go to a bookstore if you want, we won't be gone long." She rambled.

I laughed, "Sure, that sounds great, Leah." She smiled at me again.

"Do you want me to come pick you up or do you want to drive down to La Push before we go?" She asked.

I answered, "I'll come down here. I may need to speak to Jake before we go."

She nodded. "Bella!" Charlie's voice boomed from downstairs. "It's time to go, you have school in the morning!"

"Coming!" I called back.

Leah stood up when I did. She pulled me into a hug and said; "I'll see you tomorrow." She pulled back and swiftly kissed my cheek before opening her door and going across the hall to the bathroom. My cheek where she kissed me burned a little. I wasn't sure if it was from her heat or from her kiss. I placed my hand over it anyway, enjoying the tingling feeling her lips left. My mind started to wander how it would feel to have her lips on mine and maybe a few other places.

"Bella!" Charlie called again. I pulled myself from my thoughts and ran down the stairs.

I caught a knowing glance from all the boys. That's really getting old, I thought and followed Charlie out the door. I could still feel where Leah kissed me. I basked in that feeling all the way home counting down the hours till I would see her again.

-The Next Day-

(Leah's POV)

When Bella was sitting on my bed next to me, I couldn't stop myself from staring at her. That gorgeous thick hair, big brown eyes, full lips stretched into a big smile. Her laugh made my heart skip every time. It was clear to see that 'just friends' wasn't going to work for me for very long. When I kissed her cheek last night I swore I smelled her arousal. I shouldn't be thinking these thoughts right now. There was nothing else to do, as I was sitting on my couch waiting for the time when Bella would get here so I could be alone with her. Alone time with Bella. I rubbed my thighs together and then stood up. I couldn't fucking take being away from her.

I grabbed my mom's keys and started out the door. When I drove up to her house, I noticed her truck was in the driveway. So the bloodsucker must have taken her to school. I checked the time on my cell; it was almost time for her to get out.

I drove up to Forks High, carefully controlling my thoughts in case her bloodsucker was around. She walked out of the building, holding his hand. I fought with myself to control my shakes, my thoughts and my jealousy all at one time. Not an easy feat, I'll tell you that.

Opening my car door, I called out, "Bella!"

She turned toward me, confused at first then she smile and waved. The two leeches turned toward me with looks of disgust on their faces. Bella loped over to me.

"Hey, Leah. I thought I was coming down to La Push first?"

The two leeches walked over to stand behind her. I shrugged, "I was bored as shit and I figured I'd save you the driving time. You want to go now?"

She nodded and started to walk toward the passenger seat. Edward stopped her, "Bella, you are not going with this dog. Going to a bonfire with Jacob is one thing, but going somewhere with this one is another thing."

'Fuck off leech,' I said in my thoughts. He glared at me but other wise ignored me.

The little pixie leech asked, "Where are you going?"

"Shopping," I answered.

Her face fell. She looked at Bella, "You never shop with me."

Bella looked pained. "We're not shopping for me. Leah needs clothes and we're just getting stuff for her."

The pixie nodded, but still looked sad. I huffed, "If we're done here, I'd like to get to Port Angeles today."

Edward glared at me and started to say something. Bella cut him off, "Edward, listen. Leah is my friend, okay. She asked me to help her get some clothes, and I agreed. Plus, you know Charlie wants me to have friends outside of you, Alice and Jake."

He just said, "Have fun then." He kissed Bella's lips and he and the pixie left. I climbed into the driver's seat and waited for Bella.

After we had been driving a few minutes, Bella said, "I'm sorry about him."

I shook my head. "It's not your fault," I said quietly.

When we reached Port Angeles, my mood had improved a little. I was still a little irked about Edward kissing Bella, but I was trying not to let that bother me. We went into a clothing store, where I picked out some simple dresses I could slip on and off easily.

Bella kept me company, giving me her opinion on things and even picking out a few for me. I was perusing through some dresses, when I came across a dress that was perfect for Bella. It was just about knee length, had a beaded bodice and was a beautiful sapphire color. I pulled it off the rack and turned around to find Bella. She walked over to me when she saw me looking for her."Isn't that a little small for you?"

I shook my head, "It's for you." I held it out to her.

A horrified expression crossed her face. "I thought we were just shopping for you?"

I shrugged. "This is perfect for you, Bell, and it's for your graduation. Go try it on."

She reluctantly took it from me and walked into the dressing rooms. I stood outside and waited. I looked around the shop, there were only three other people in here; one was the cashier, whom was talking with two other girls on the other side of the store.

Bella's voice came from the other side of the door, "Can you come zip me up?" I opened the door and stepped inside. Standing just behind Bella, I took the zipper in my hands and zipped the dress up. When it was done, I let my hand trail lightly up her spine all the way up to her neck and down her shoulder slowly. Her skin was like silk under my fingertips. Perfect, smooth, and creamy white; she was gorgeous. Bella started to sway a little from my touch. I placed both hands on her shoulders.

"You okay?" I asked seriously.

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm uh, just dizzy. I think." She walked out the dressing room door and looked in the mirror. I walked out behind her.

"You look gorgeous." I told her truthfully. She blushed and looked away. I didn't know if it was from my compliment or the fact it was a girl who complimented her beauty. She mumbled a 'thanks' and then went to take the dress off. We walked over and paid for our clothes and then walked out the door. It was relatively early so Bella said, "Do you want to go back to my house? I can cook us some dinner. I know Charlie will be hungry when he gets home."

"Sure." I answered as I pulled the car onto the road. Any amount of time I got to spend with her was golden to me.


	4. Chapter 4

(Bella's POV)

I damn near died when Leah ran her hand up my back in the store. It was the simplest touch, but did such terrible things to me. Terrible or wonderful, I couldn't decide. I was technically still with Edward, but every second I spent with Leah the more I regretted that fact. Just friends wasn't going to stick if she kept that up. When we arrived at my house, Charlie wasn't home yet. I went into the kitchen and started to cook dinner. Leah sat in the kitchen with me and chatted about school. I was worried Edward would be close to the house and hear her thoughts, but if she didn't smell him I didn't think he was.

Charlie came home just as Leah was setting the table. "Bella? Whose car is that outside?"

Leah smirked at me and answered him, "It's mine, Charlie."

He came into the kitchen smiling, "Well hello Leah. Nice to see you around here." He sat down at the table and started to fill his plate. Leah and I ate slower than Charlie as we talked about our shopping trip. Charlie asked what I had bought and I told him about my graduation dress.

My mind wandered back to in the dressing room. My mind clouded over with just the thought of Leah's hand on my back again. Something tapped my foot and I looked up to see Leah smirking at me. I blushed, realizing I had just been caught thinking about her.

Charlie rambled on throughout dinner, which was really unlike him. Normally he would read the newspaper or just eat in silence. Why he was so talkative tonight, I didn't know. Probably at the fact that Leah was here. He talked to her a lot and seemed happy that we were becoming friends. When he finished, he put his plate in the sink and went into the living room.

Leah stood up from her chair, "I should go now. I have patrol tonight, plus your bloodsucker is outside."

I nodded, a little saddened that she was leaving. "I have a lot of homework to do tonight, I'll see you later I guess."

She smiled, "I'll call you." She walked through the living room, saying good-bye to Charlie. I cleaned up the dishes from dinner and then started to go up the stairs.

I went into the bathroom and quickly showered and changed into my pajamas. I knew Edward didn't like the smell of the wolves on me anymore than they liked the smell of him on me. When I was finished, I went into my room. Edward smiled and came over to me. He pulled me close to him and smelled my neck. "I missed you today."

I didn't answer him. This all felt so wrong with him. His touch was cold and unwelcome to my skin. I knew whose touch I wanted, and she had just left my house. Edward finally let me go and asked, "So what did you get today?"

I walked over and took the dress out of my closet to show him. "It's for graduation," I said smiling.

He smiled. "It will look lovely on you," he said charmingly.

"Leah picked it out," I said without thinking. Anger flashed in his eyes, but he quickly covered it up.

"At least the mutt can do something right," he mumbled. I hated it when he called them mutts or dogs. I hated it when Jake called the Cullen's leeches or bloodsuckers. Leah had called Edward a bloodsucker earlier, but it didn't bother me for some reason.

I scowled at him. "Don't call her a mutt. You know I hate it when you guys use those derogatory terms."

He softened. "I'm sorry, love." I just waved him off and hung the dress back in my closet. "When did the two of you get so close?"

It was an innocent question but it still made me nervous. "The bonfire I guess. She feels like an outsider because she's the only girl in the pack. I understand that because I feel like an outsider everywhere, really."

He nodded in understanding; he knew that I felt awkward being the only human around his family. Without waiting for a reply I crawled into bed, Edward following me. Just as I had last night, I ignored the coldness of his skin and imagined the warmth of Leah's touch on my back. The tingly warm feeling on my cheek where she had kissed me.  
________________________________________  
-Saturday- Bella's Graduation

(Leah's POV)  
Stupid bloodsuckers have to ruin everything. Edward was hogging all my Bella time and barely let her come down to La Push. Plus, we had come across another scent on the reservation and Sam had us patrolling more than usual. Since the day we went shopping, I've only got to patrol and sleep. I barely had time to do anything else. That includes seeing Bella. The imprint wasn't happy about this. There was a constant pulling on my heart, trying to get closer to her.

Today was her graduation day. Sam was allowing Jake and I to go and make a brief appearance at her graduation party, and then it was back to the reservation. I slipped on the nicest dress I owned. It was a white dress with black spaghetti straps and a black floral print along the bottom. I found a pair of white flats and went downstairs.   
Mom handed me a loaded plate of food and I ate quickly. Just as I finished, Jake knocked on the front door and called, "Leah, let's go!"

I kissed mom on the cheek. "See you later, mom." I faintly heard her tell me bye as I ran out the door and jumped into Jacob's car. I figured the faster I got out of the house, the sooner I'd get to see Bella. Jacob smiled at my enthusiasm and drove as fast as he could get away with to Forks. At least he seemed to be letting her go easily, accepting that she was my imprint. I was doubtful Edward would react the same.

When we pulled up, I launched myself out of the car and nearly ran into the building. I don't think I've ever moved so fast to get into school. Jacob and I found where Billy and Charlie were sitting and went over to take the seats they had saved for us. The ceremony had just began. I tried not to scowl when the Cullens made their appearance.

Bella's name was called; Jake and I stood up to cheer for her. Jacob grabbed Charlie to make him stand too. Bella looked embarrassed but happy to see we were there.

After it was over, I started to go over to her, but Edward was there. I scowled at his back and stayed in my seat next to Jake. I leaned forward a bit to hear what they were saying. Edward turned and glared at me. I mentally flipped him off and he left me alone. Sadly accepting that I wouldn't get to talk to her, I stood up along with Jake and we went to join Billy outside the school. A few minutes later, Bella walked out with Edward and Alice in tow. Jacob tensed next to me. I rolled my eyes, it's not like he hasn't seen the bloodsucker with her before.

Bella walked over to us. "Guys we have a huge problem."

I tensed. Great. Another problem to add to my already too long list. "What is it?"

Bella winced at the harshness of my voice. Edward growled, but Alice ignored me and answered for Bella. "Yesterday Bella was with me all day. When she went home she noticed some of her clothes were missing. Then when Edward went over to her house he noticed a new scent in her room. It was a vampire, but he didn't recognize the scent. We think it's so that Victoria can give Bella's scent to the newborns she's creating so they can find Bella."

Throughout her explanation, I had to fight to control my temper and my thoughts. Luckily, I didn't have to speak since Jacob did that for me. "What can we do?"

Alice shook her head. "I don't know, Bella's future has been fuzzy lately, for some reason. It may be why I didn't see the vampire in her room. We'll have to talk to the rest of the family and the pack and see what we can do."

Jacob and I nodded. The Cullens left with Bella, while Jacob and I went to talk to Sam. We promised to stop by her grad party later if we could, depending on what Sam had to say.

(Bella's POV)  
I tried to enjoy my graduation party, but I just couldn't. I was waiting on Jacob and Leah to walk through the door. I knew they were here before I saw them. The pull on my heart alerted me to Leah's presence. I walked through the crowd and met them at the door. It wasn't just Jake and Leah, though. Sam and Jared were with them. After a brief hello, I led them into the kitchen, ignoring all of the looks from our guests. Alice quickly ran through the situation again.

Sam was the first to speak. "We'll fight with you."

Alice nodded slowly. "That could work," she said softly.

Rosalie looked at her, "Could work? Can't you see how it will turn out?"

Alice shook her head. "The wolves are involved, so I can't see anything. I'm looking after the fight and it looks like we're all okay. I don't know about the wolves though, but it doesn't look like anyone's died." She paused, her eyes still glazed over. Then she gritted her teeth and said, "I still can't see Bella though! I don't get why your future is so fuzzy lately. It's been like that for a week now."

The bonfire was a week ago. Leah imprinting on me was a week ago. Why was my future fuzzy though?

I caught Sam staring at me with a weary look. Jasper spoke up then, "We'll need to train the wolves in how to kill a newborn."

Sam glanced at him. "What do you mean? We've killed vampires before."

Jasper shook his head, "These newborns aren't like other vampires. They rely on their strength and don't think clearly. We should meet tonight and we'll show you the motions." He looked down at the countertop then, most likely planning out a battle strategy.

Sam nodded. "What time tonight?"

Alice answered. "Two. If that works for you guys?"

Sam nodded curtly. "We'll see you then." He turned to leave, then stopped and turned back, "And Bella. Soon." He gave me a pointed look and I nodded, knowing full well what he meant. With that, the wolves all left.

Edward looked at me, "What did he mean by that?"

"Couldn't you tell from his thoughts?" Alice asked confused.

Edward shook his head. "No, he was very good at guarding them. What did he mean, Bella?"

I looked down. It was now or never. "Edward, we need to talk."


	5. Chapter 5

(Bella's POV)  
How was I going to do this? Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! This is going to end so badly. Oh goodness. I looked up at Edward, who was staring at me. I shook my head, "Later."  
He eyed me wearily, but nodded. We went back into the living room for the rest of the party. God, I am such a chicken shit. That was my chance to tell Edward everything and I blew it. I should probably talk to Leah first and tell her I want to be with her before I go springing anything on Edward. I don't think I'm quite ready to go jump into Leah's bed and be her girlfriend, but I at least wanted the chance to date her without feeling guilty about Edward. At the end of the night, Edward took me home. We stayed up talking in my room until it was time to go to the clearing.

The night in the clearing passed pretty slowly. I watched Jasper and Emmett demonstrate how to kill a newborn, then Alice stepped in for Emmett, then Edward stepped in for Alice. Jasper pretty much dominated the fights each time. I had so much respect for him after this. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in the clearing, because I woke up in my bed, alone. Not even Edward's cold body was near. I went downstairs to hear Charlie talking to someone in the kitchen. I walked in to see Leah sitting at the table laughing with Charlie.

"Morning Bells. Leah came by to see if you wanted to hang out today." Charlie said.

I smiled and looked at Leah. "Just let me get dressed and we can go."

She nodded then returned to her previous conversation with Charlie. Good, at least he liked Leah. I dressed quickly in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then ran back down the stairs. Leah followed me out to her car. We both called out a 'goodbye' to Charlie as he got into his cruiser. He was on his way to work and wouldn't be home until late.

"So what are we doing today?" I asked as Leah started down the road toward La Push.

She smiled, causing my heart to leap into my throat. "We're going to the beach," was all she said. That could mean any number of things, oh dear.

It was easy to forget about everything when I was with Leah. We actually got along so well; I wondered why she hated me so much before. Then I remembered it was because of Edward. Oh, Edward. How was I going to break the news to him that I wanted to be with Leah now? After all we had been through? I mentally sighed.

I noticed when we crossed the invisible treaty line that Leah slowed down a bit and relaxed considerably. She reached out and took my hand. I smiled at her sweet gesture. Without thinking, or giving myself anytime to think about what I was about to say, I blurted, "I want to be with you, Leah."

She actually stomped on the brakes, causing me to fly forward, but Leah caught me. "What?" She asked.

I looked down at my hands. "I mean, I'm not really ready to jump into bed with you, but I'm ready to break up with Edward and maybe go on a date with you." I whispered the last part, but she still heard me.

Leah was speechless at first, but then finally answered, "I'm glad you feel that way."

I looked over into her eyes; they were shining with relieved tears of joy. We stared into each other's eyes until a horn honked behind us. Leah coughed and wiped her eyes. She started to drive toward the beach again. Neither of us spoke for the rest of the drive, but I did catch Leah smiling more than once. When we arrived, Leah reached into the backseat and handed me a bathing suit. I looked at her, my face displaying my confusion. She pointed toward the water. "We're going cliff diving." She said. She grabbed her own bathing suit and motioned for me to follow.

She led me into the woods. "You can change here." Noticing the look on my face she said, "I change here all the time. No one's around so they won't see."

To prove her point, she lifted her shirt above her head. This was beautiful to me for two reasons. Her confidence in her appearance that she could just pull her shirt off was almost more attractive to me than her actual appearance.

Her body was perfect in my eyes. Every inch of her tanned skin was flawless. My eyes travelled from her toned, but subtle abs up her long torso to her perfectly round, full breasts. My eyes lingered there until she slipped off her shorts. Again, I started from the bottom and worked my way up.

Even her feet were cute! Her legs were long, toned and a perfect shade of brown. I caught myself staring at her, ahem, lower parts. I glanced up to her eyes quickly to find her smirking. "Like what you see?" she asked.

I gulped loudly, unable to answer. She slipped into her bikini, which covered a small amount of her body and showed off just enough for me to be flustered. I turned away from her so she couldn't see how red my face was or the desire in my eyes. I wanted her and I wanted her bad.

Shyly, I slipped out of my own clothes and into my bikini as fast as I could. Sure Leah had the confidence to give me a full view, but I couldn't bring myself to do that just yet. When I turned around, her eyes were burning with desire as she stared at me. That gave me a tiny confidence boost but not much.

"Ready?" she asked and motioned toward the water. I followed her out to the water, thoroughly enjoying the view. The view of Leah, that is. Since I was behind her, I got a nice view of her wonderfully shaped ass. It was as toned as the rest of her. Leah could become a model; she most certainly had the looks for it.

I heard a snicker from a little ways a way from me. I looked up, finding Jake, Quil and Paul holding in their laughter. Leah was also staring at me with an amused look. "What?" I asked.

Quil smiled. "Oh nothing, you know. Just wondering when you're going to stop staring at Leah's ass so we can go jump off these cliffs."

I blushed a deeper red than I ever had before. Leah smacked Quil on the chest, sending him flying to the ground and landing on his butt. "Leave her alone, Quil." She growled, then turned back to smile at me.

She walked over and took my hand, lacing our fingers together. I would have never made it up the cliff by myself, but with Leah next to me, I made it pretty easily. When we got to the top, I froze. I had jumped off the cliff before, but I wasn't thinking clearly at all that day and I almost drowned.

Leah slid her arms around my waist. Her hot breath hit my ear as she whispered, "What's wrong?" I couldn't answer with her so close to me. She smiled into my hair, "Are you scared?" I could only nod.

I'm sure she thought it was out of fear of jumping off the cliff, but really it was her being so close to me. Touching me so gently, yet firmly. Her scent was a woodsy scent similar to Jake's, but hers had a feminine edge to it. I leaned back a little into her embrace and inhaled deeply. Vanilla. She smelled like vanilla. It was wonderful, like heaven in my nose.

Leah smirked again when she realized that I was smelling her. "Are you ready?" she asked. "I'll jump with you."

I nodded. The next thing I knew, we were falling toward the black water. Leah's warm grip around my stomach let me know that I was safe in her arms. I wasn't scared, despite my scream of bloody murder. I couldn't be scared with Leah right there to save me.

We broke the surface of the water together. Almost as soon as I went under, Leah pulled me right back up. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the salty air that hung over the water. I realized then that I had my arms around Leah's shoulders, holding on to her for dear life.

She swam us back to shore. I saw the guys were on the shore watching us intently. "That was hot!" Paul blurted.

Leah threw a rock at him, which he neatly caught. Sometimes it sucked being the only human around. For a while we watched the guys jump around in the water and splash each other. I sat in the sand and built a castle. Jake teased me a little but then sat down to help me. Leah was in the water, wrestling her brother. Seth's laughter echoed against the cliffs.

"Talk to Edward yet?" Jake asked.

"No," I replied. "But I'll be glad when I do so everyone will stop asking me."

"Everyone would stop asking if you'd just do it," he countered. "It's been a week since the imprint. I can see you and Leah are getting closer. Edward needs to know. I can't believe I'm about to say this but it's not fair to either of them. You're dating Edward but hanging around with Leah every chance you get like she's a mistress or something."

"She's not," I replied, my heart sinking because I knew he was right.

"You have to make a choice," Jake continued. "And you have to do it soon."

"I know." We continued to build our castle and watch the others in the water. Leah was actually laughing with the boys and participating in whatever game they were playing.

"You know, a week ago that would have never happened," Jake said, pointing to Leah and the guys. "She was so bitter and upset with Sam." He shook his head. "And now look at her, they're having fun together. You know why?" He looked at me seriously. "You make her happy, as crazy as that seems. Happier than I've ever seen her."

I smiled, watching her laugh. Jake was right. Leah's face was lit up with laughter and she was the most beautiful sight. When she caught me staring she waved, that smile still in place. She spoke to the guys then started my way. Leah took my hand again and led me away from the guys. She took us back over to our clothes. We changed without speaking and then she led me through the trees until we reached a place that was secluded from everyone else. It was a part of the beach, but was surrounded by trees. I didn't think anyone came here often.

Leah sat down on a rock. Acting either on instinct to get warm or to be close to her, I didn't know, but I jumped up on the rock and settled myself between her legs. She automatically wrapped her arms around me. This silent moment with her meant more to me than anything I had with Edward.

After awhile, Leah broke the silence. "So when are you going to talk to Edward? I don't want to push you into talking to him before you're ready but you know we're training with the Cullen's again tonight and I don't know if I'll be able to control my thoughts as I have been in the past. Especially after the day we had together today." She chuckled a little.  
I was glad Edward wasn't able to read my mind. If he were, he would have broken up with me long ago for all the thoughts I had about Leah.

I shrugged against her, "I don't know. I want to do it as soon as possible. I'm kinda dying to go out with you," I admitted.

She laughed. "Me too."

"I'm just scared, I guess," I told her. "He was the first guy to really show interest in me. After everything we've been through and all he's done for me..." I trailed off. "He's over a hundred years old. Since he became a vampire he's never shown an interest in a human before. I'm the first girl he's ever dated. With all the years of me being ignored by everyone it made me feel so special. To know that even though he could snap his fingers and have any girl he wanted that he actually wanted me. Then his family accepted me, for the most part. I guess it was nice to feel like I belonged somewhere." I shook my head. "This imprint threw me for a loop but I'm not rejecting it."

Leah tightened her hold on me. "I know how you feel, to an extent. I thought Sam and I were perfect for each other. We dated all through high school, we were going to get married. Then he imprinted on Emily. Of course, at the time I didn't know that. All I knew was he broke up with me for my cousin. I was so hurt, I didn't understand at all how he could be so in love with me and then he was breaking up with me. Just goes to show we don't always know what we're doing so fate decided to step in. If Sam hadn't imprinted on Emily we probably would've gotten married. Who knows where we'd be now but something tells me I wouldn't be happy."

I sat up. "I should probably get going. Charlie will be waiting on me." I slid down off the rock.

Leah followed me back to her car. "Maybe you can spend the night with me? That way you won't have to sneak out of the house," she asked hopefully.

"What about Edward? He's supposed to take me to the clearing," I said.

She grimaced at Edward's name. I hated that I was doing this to her. We arrived at my house a little while later.

"Do you want to come in?" I asked, unbuckling my seat belt.

She shook her head. "Edward's waiting for you."

"Damn. There goes our slumber party plans," I mumbled. She laughed as I shut the door behind me and went into the house.

Edward met me at the door. "We need to talk Bella."

I gulped. "What about?"

He scoffed. "How about why you're suddenly best friends with Leah and you're so distant with me? Why you're spending all of your time in La Push lately? Why has your future been so fuzzy lately and sometimes Alice can't see you at all? Or how about why you smell overwhelmingly like Leah right now?"

I sat down in the chair that Charlie normally sat in. I took a deep breath. "You're not going to like this," I whispered.

"What is it, my Bella?" he asked, taking my hand gently.

I gently took my hand back and said, "I'm not your Bella anymore."

If it was possible, I could swear his face became paler. "What do you mean?" he asked in a deadly voice.

I looked down. "That night I went to the bonfire with Jake was the first time I'd seen Leah since she became a werewolf."

"And?" he prompted.

I whispered the damning words, "She imprinted on me."

Edward leapt away from me. Suddenly he was on the other side of the room. His eyes were black and he was glaring at me. "She imprinted on you?"

I nodded. "I'm sorry, Edward, there's nothing I can do about it. She's my soul mate, my other half, I belong with her not you."

He stared at me, then without a word he left me sitting in Charlie's chair. I started to cry. Couldn't he have at least said something so I didn't feel like a complete bitch?

I went out my back door and stood on the porch. There was always a wolf patrolling at least one hundred yards away from my house. If I yelled loud enough, they would hear me.  
I took a deep breath and screamed Leah's name as loud as I could then I sat down on the top step. I had to wait no more than two minutes before Leah emerged from the trees in a dark blue sundress and sprinted toward me.

She didn't speak, just sat down next to me and put her arms around me. I leaned into her embrace and cried.

"I did it. I told Edward." I said after a while.

Leah tensed. "What did he say?"

"Nothing. He just left," I said, pulling back to wipe my face.

Leah hung her arm over my shoulders. "I'm sorry he did that. He'll come around eventually."

"I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"I know," Leah said softly, rubbing my shoulder. 

We stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. Then, yet again without thinking, I leaned forward just an inch. Leah took this as an invitation and leaned forward. I closed my eyes and waited to feel her lips on mine, instead, she pressed her lips to my cheek.

She whispered, "Now is not the time for our first kiss."

I smiled. "Thank you." I wasn't sure why I said it, but Leah seemed to understand.


	6. Chapter 6

(Bella's POV)  
Leah took me to the clearing that night. Edward's eyes bored into mine, causing me to shrink into Leah's side. Apparently Edward hadn't told his family what was going on because they were confused.

"Leah imprinted on Bella." Edward said, his voice sounded hurt and broken.

Alice gasped. "No! But can't a wolf be anything to the imprint? Why can't Leah just be Bella's friend and Bella can still be with you!" She sounded like she was begging and that made me feel bad. I looked up into Leah's eyes, she looked hurt, but she was in wolf form so she couldn't say anything.

Edward shook his head. "Leave it alone, Alice."

Rosalie said, "So why are we here? If Bella's run off to be a lesbian why do we need to fight for her?"

Carlisle said, "Because, Rosalie, this isn't just about Bella. We're protecting Forks and our family. So we will still fight Victoria even if Bella is no longer with Edward." He smiled to me. "I'm happy you found your soul mate, even if it's not my son."

I smiled back at him and looked down. Jasper once again demonstrated the moves to the wolves. Throughout the night, I felt Edward's eyes on me. I ignored him each time and shrank further into Leah's side. I couldn't take his hurtful expression on me. I didn't mean to hurt him and I wanted him to know it. His eyes were on me again. Against my better judgment, I looked up and met his eyes. They were filled with pain, despair and fury. He looked almost like he blamed me for leaving him. He caught me reading his eyes and they turned accusing. He was glaring at me now. Leah noticed this and growled.

When I couldn't take it anymore, I huffed and stood up. "You know, Edward, you shouldn't blame me for this. It's not my fault, okay. I didn't leave you because I had to, okay. I tried to fight the imprint for as long as I could, but Leah completes me and every time I'm with her I feel things I never felt with you. You've done nothing wrong and neither have I. In fact, this is no one's fault except for the bitch that is fate. So stop glaring at me like I did this on purpose."

He gaped at me. He composed himself and said, "Fine. She's better for you anyway. At least with her you can't get pregnant and produce little mutt babies."

"Edward!" Esme cried. "Stop that right now. I know you're hurt by this, but Bella's right, it isn't her fault and you shouldn't blame her. It's not Leah's fault either so don't blame her. And don't talk about children like that. The wolves will have normal babies so don't call them mutts."

I smiled in thanks at Esme and she smiled back. Edward didn't answer. He just turned and ran away. I couldn't help but feel a little like I was to blame for that.

Carlisle turned back to everybody and said, "I think that's all for tonight." I hopped onto Leah's back and she took me home.

Just inside the tree line, she phased and then climbed in my window in human form with me on her back. She sat me down on my bed and sat down next to me.

"Thanks for telling Edward off for me." She said.

I smiled at her. "He deserved it. You didn't deserve to be talked to like that."

She smiled back. "It was hot seeing you get all huffy like that."

I laughed a quiet laugh. I didn't want to wake Charlie up. My face was red from her comment and I didn't know what to say to her.

She said, "I have to go, but I'll be patrolling right outside if you need me."

I nodded. "Okay." She leaned over and kissed me on my neck. The feelings her warm lips against my skin stirred up in me caused my eyes to close, and my head to fall back a little. When I opened my eyes, Leah was gone. I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the warmth I felt in between my legs. Damn her. I stood up and changed into my pajamas.

Thoughts of Leah's lips filled my head. She had kissed me three times now. Twice on the cheek and once on my neck. Each time she'd pressed her lips to my skin, I felt the warmth in between my legs. I remembered how perfect her naked body was yesterday. Her perfect breasts and long legs. I remembered feeling her arms around me when we were cliff diving. I could barely remember the fall through the air and breaking the surface of the black water below us, it was all a blur. But Leah's arms locked around me, I could remember that perfectly. The thought of her alone made me wet.

I began to imagine what it would be like to be pressed up against Leah's naked body. Or finally kissing her full on the mouth like I had wanted to so many times. My body was begging for a release. Without really thinking about it, I slipped my chill hand into my underwear. My fingers started to work my center as I thought more about Leah.

Her perfect breasts.

Her long legs.

Her full kissable lips.

Her flat, toned stomach.

Her vagina, that I'm sure was Bella's Wonderland.

I imagined my cold fingers were Leah's warm fingers inside of me. I imagined her flawless tan face peering up at me from between my legs.

"Leah." I moaned. My fingers worked my center faster and my other hand went up my shirt to my breasts. I was getting close to getting my release. I focused more on Leah, imagining her tongue dipping into me. I bit back another moan. I was so close...

Suddenly, my door opened. "Eek!" I squeaked as I yanked my hand out of my pants and fixed my shirt.

"Bella?" Charlie asked. "You up?" You've got to be fucking kidding me. If I had a gun right now, I would shoot him.

"Yeah, I'm up." I said. I was glad the light was off so he couldn't see my face that was probably flushed. I could see his silhouette in the doorway nod and then he left and went down the stairs.

I sighed and flopped back on my bed. "Godammit Charlie." I sat up and went to take a shower. I don't know how much more sexual frustration I can take. I didn't know if I could go downstairs and face Charlie without choking him for interrupting me.

When I was dressed, I went downstairs. Apparently, Charlie valued his life and left me. I wonder if he could sense I wanted to kill him when he opened my door. I ate breakfast and tried to decide what I would do that day. I didn't really have much planned. Thankfully, I didn't have to decide because Leah walked in my back door just then.

"Sup Bells? Have any nice dreams?" she teased.

I looked at her blankly, but when I noticed her smug smile I gasped. She'd heard me moan her name. I quickly looked down and shook my head. "Actually I didn't sleep when I came home."

She sat down next to me. "So you were awake then?"

I nodded. Even without looking at her I could see the grin on her face. I blurted out, "I want to tell Charlie we're together."

Leah paused. "Are we together?"

Confused, I looked at her. "You said if Edward wasn't in the way we would be together."

She nodded, "I know, I'm just making sure you want to get with me so soon after breaking up with him."

I laughed. "After yesterday and last night, I couldn't care less about Edward."

She smiled at this. "Okay, we'll tell Charlie when he gets home tonight, then."

We spent the day waiting on Charlie and watching movies. She liked horror movies, which scared me and made me hide behind her. She helped me cook dinner that night. Charlie came in while we were still cooking.

"Leah? You're over here a lot lately. I figured Bella would be with Edward today," he said sitting down at the table. He said Edward's name a little irritated.

I shook my head. "Nope, Edward's busy." I said.

Leah smiled. When the food was done, we sat down to eat. Charlie surprised me again by talking to Leah. I was so used to him reading the paper at dinner. I guess he really liked her.

"Thanks girls, that was great." Charlie said as he stood up. He burped and left the room. Leah and I washed dishes and cleaned the kitchen.

When we were done, I turned to Leah, "Ready?" I asked.

"Are you?" she countered, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded and we went into the living room and sat down. Charlie smiled as we sat down, but didn't say anything. We watched the game with him for a while. During halftime, Charlie asked, "So Bella, why wasn't Edward with you today? He's usually stuck to your hip. Yesterday you went to La Push and today you're with Leah all day. What's he think about that?"

I was about to make Charlie the happiest man in the world. "Actually, dad, I broke up with Edward."

He dropped his beer. "You did? When?"

I shrugged. "Yesterday, but I've wanted to break up with him for a while."

"Oh," Charlie said. "Why do you say that?"

Charlie didn't usually push a topic, so he must be really curious right now. So I told him, "I, uh, I fell in love with someone else."

"Jake?" he asked sounding hopeful.

I shook my head and looked into his eyes. "Leah," I said calmly.

For a few long seconds, Charlie didn't react. Then his eyes grew bigger as he processed this information. He looked at Leah, then back at me and back to Leah. Then he laughed. Leah and I looked at each other, but Charlie just kept laughing.

"Dad? What's so funny?" I asked.

He finally stopped laughing and said, "That's great, Bella."

I looked at him wearily, afraid he might not believe me. "What?" I asked dumbly.

He looked at me and repeated, "That's great." All traces of laughter were gone now. "Leah's a good girl and can't get you pregnant," he said without thinking. He scrambled to correct himself, "I mean, she'll take care of you."

Leah and I laughed. Charlie glared. "I just meant that you've both seemed very happy lately, now I guess I know why."

With a smile I stood up and hugged my father. "Thank you."

"Sure thing, Bells," he said awkwardly. 

I pulled away and said, "Dad, Leah and I are going upstairs."

He said, "Okay." It was quiet and then, "Hey, wait a minute! No funny business up there, I don't care if she is a girl, no sex in my house!"

My face was bright red when we reached my room. Leah laughed at my blush. I sat down on my bed, "Oh my god. Well, that went better than I thought it would," I said.

"Yeah," Leah agreed sitting next to me. "Now there's nothing holding us back. As soon as we're done fighting the newborns, nothing will be in our way. We'll have a whole summer together before you go to college."

"College?" I asked.

"You're not going?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Well, I got accepted to Dartmouth, University of Washington, and the University of Puget Sound."

She smiled, "So go to college, Bella."

"What about you?" I asked.

Her smile turned sad. "I'll wait for you. Trust me, I don't want you to go so far away, but I'm not going to hold you back. I don't want you to stay here just because I want you to stay with me. You won't be that far away, I can visit you."

I nodded. "UW it is then." She smiled at me.

"Great. You need to get to bed. I'll be busy with the pack all day tomorrow, but I'll come get you tomorrow night to take you to the clearing. Be sure to ask Charlie if you can stay the night with me. I'll see you tomorrow," she said. She kissed my cheek and left. I heard her say goodbye to Charlie and the front door shut behind her.

A few minutes later, I heard Charlie's footsteps coming up the stairs. Oh boy, I thought. Here we go.

He walked in my room. "Bella? Can I talk to you?" I nodded. He came in and sat down in my chair. "How serious are you and Leah?"

"Pretty serious," I said with confidence. He nodded.

"I want you to go to college in the fall. I don't want you to throw your life away for her."

I laughed. "Dad, she wants me to go to college too and I've already decided on UW. I'll be in Seattle and she'll be here." 

"That's great," he said honestly. "How did Edward take the news?"

"He's upset," I said, looking at my hands. "He said some nasty things but he'll get over it."

"How about Alice?"

"She actually begged me to stay with Edward," I told him, twisting the truth a little.

Charlie shook his head. "Well, I never liked him, you know that. I'm glad he's out of your life but I'm more glad that you seem so happy. When Leah is around you're just smiling all the time. It's nice." He smiled but I could see the sadness in his eyes as he remembered when Edward left me.

"Thanks, dad. I am happy," I said.

"Okay, well I'll let you get to bed now. Good night Bells." 

"Good night, dad."

He paused at the door. "Don't forget to call your mother and tell her the news." He grinned and shut the door behind him. I grimaced at the thought. For the second time that day, I flopped back on my bed. I went to sleep in my clothes and dreamed about Leah once again.


	7. Chapter 7

(Leah's POV)  
It was nearly time. Bella was asleep in her tent far away from the clearing. Edward was with her right now, I didn't like that but Jasper had everyone else in the clearing to plan our attack on the newborns.

I felt the pull in my heart that was telling me I needed to be by Bella's side. Sam had us all in human form and we were discussing what would be the best plan. When we were finished, Alice turned to me.

"Leah?"

I faced her, trying to keep my face blank. "Yes?"

She smiled a little. "I think Bella would really like it if you went to the tent. Edward says she's cold and he can't seem to warm her up."

Without answering her I turned and walked through the trees until I reached the tent. I went inside. As soon as Bella saw me, she smiled and opened the sleeping bag.

I smiled back and climbed in next to her, ignoring Edward's eyes that flashed with jealousy. Bella tucked her face into the crook of my neck and sighed in content. My arms were wrapped tightly around her small freezing body. She was cold enough to be a vampire. God damn you Edward! I cursed in my head. How could you let her get this cold, stupid bloodsucker. He growled, but said nothing. Good. I don't want to hear his fucking voice. He said something then but I ignored him, pressing my face into Bella's hair and breathing in her sweet scent. Edward shifted uncomfortably.

"Do you have to think like that?" he spat at me.

I rolled my eyes. Get over it leech. Why doesn't he just leave? Bella doesn't need him now, I'm here and he wasn't keeping her very warm in the first place. I heard a rustling and Edward's scent grew slightly weaker. I lifted up a little to see that he had left the tent. 

Bella looked up, "Did Edward leave?" she asked in a soft voice.

I nodded. "He didn't like my thoughts." I said. She giggled and looked down. I caught the sight of her faint blush just before she pressed her face into my neck again. Her hot breath was hitting my neck in sinful ways.

Slowly, I lightly traced my fingers along her arm. Her breath caught in her throat at my gentle, feather light touch. I smiled into her hair. She snuggled closer to me. Our bodies slowly synched together, our hearts beating at the same time, breathing at the same time, falling asleep at the same time.

With Bella's sweet scent filling my nose and her soft body pressed against mine, I soon forgot all about the threat of the newborns and fell asleep. There were so many things I could do with Bella in this tent, especially when we were so far away from everyone else. I wouldn't push her into doing anything she didn't want to. I'd give her as much time as she needed. When she was ready, we would do whatever she wanted to do.

The next morning, Edward woke me up rather harshly. Seth would be sitting with Bella during the fight, to ensure she was safe. He would be phased so he would see any danger coming and alert us if he needed to. I knew that at the slightest hint that Bella was in danger, I would be there in half a heartbeat.

I sat up at the same time Bella did. She looked over and smiled at me. I smiled back a little shyly. Our eyes locked and I found myself lost in Bella's unnervingly enchanting brown orbs. I knew my eyes had filled with my devotion toward her since she blushed and looked away. A second later, she glanced back at me, still blushing. I smiled at her to let her know I wanted her to look at me. Edward huffed impatiently at the opening of the tent. I glared at him and Bella giggled at our tension.

"It's time to go." He bit out.

I sighed heavily and looked back at Bella. My eyes scanned her face, trying to memorize every little detail. I didn't want to forget a single trace of her gorgeous profile.

"Stop it," she whispered.

"What?" I asked, feeling more than a little confused.

"Stop looking at me like you'll never see me again."

I nodded and tried to think of what to say here. This should be an easy fight according to Alice. Even though we were fighting with the Cullens, I couldn't help but feel I had an enemy on my team. And that was Edward.

The man in question growled from his post by the door. "I'm not your enemy."

Mentally I laughed. Sure does feel like he's my enemy. I can't help I imprinted on Bella anymore than he can. He may be a selfish bloodsucker who saw her first, but fate says she's mine. Who am I to corrupt the grand design? Edward rolled his eyes, but said nothing. I sighed and stood up to follow Edward. I had only taken one step before Bella's small hand closed around my wrist. She tried to pull me back, but she wasn't strong enough. I moved so I was standing in front of her.

She turned her enchantingly brown eyes to meet mine and whispered, "Come back to me."

I could almost feel the love pouring from her. Before I could stop myself, I was leaning down. I was about six inches from her face when I realized I didn't want our first kiss to be here, before this fight. It should be something special, but I couldn't just leave her with nothing. She had to have something to think about during the fight didn't she?

Just as our lips were about to meet, I quickly leaned even further down and pressed my lips to her neck.

"I promise." I whispered, tilting my face up so that my lips brushed slightly against her earlobe. She shivered under my touch again. I didn't have time to feel smug from how she reacted to me. Edward huffing again pulled me from my thoughts. I sighed against Bella's skin. When I pulled back, I noted Bella's flustered face and smiled at her. I cupped her cheek with my hand. It was a silent promise that I would return to her. I smiled softly at her, and then slowly pulled my hand from her face. My fingers brushed lightly against her cheek, causing her eyes to flutter closed.

I finally turned and followed Edward out to the clearing. This was unpleasant for a few reasons. There was the insistent tug at my heart telling me to go back where I belonged, which was with Bella. There was also the big fight that was ahead of us. And to top it all off, I had to walk behind Edward. So I had the bloodsucker stench in my nose the entire walk.

When we reached the clearing, tension was in the air. Alice was standing as far away from us as possible, I guessed to get a better read on our futures after this fight. Jasper lined us all up and then there was nothing to do but wait. The first newborn became visible through the trees and we all shifted uneasily. Jasper was the first to attack; the rest of us followed his lead and pounced on the first leech in sight.

I had just finished killing my second newborn, when Seth's howl ripped through the air. Without thinking about what I was doing, I ran from the clearing and toward Bella. Seth's thoughts were jumbled and I couldn't separate his thoughts from the rest of the pack. When I reached Seth, I saw he was crouched protectively in front of Bella, who was leaning against a tree; she looked terrified. I felt another pain in my heart and the strong urge to make all her fears disappear. I knew just how to do that. I turned my attention to the two vampires in front of Seth. They hadn't noticed me yet. Good.

The male vamp took a step toward Seth, and the red head followed him. Every step they took toward Seth was a step toward Bella. My Bella. Seth mentally told me to go for the redhead, and he would take down the other. We counted down in our heads, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We both leaped at the same time. The male moved because he saw Seth coming. The redhead started to move toward Bella, but I pounced on her from behind. My jaws locked around her head. I twisted and pulled it off with a pop. I tore the rest of her body apart.

Seth and I were throwing the pieces of the vampires into the fire he had started. I couldn't face Bella. She knew I was a monster, of course, but did she have to actually witness me killing a vampire? I didn't even want to chance a look in her direction for fear of what I might see in her eyes. Pain. Hatred. Revulsion. Hesitance. What if she didn't want me anymore? Could she even stand to look at me after what I just did in front of her?

My rambling thoughts were cut short when Bella's small pale arms wrapped around my waist from behind in what she called a tight embrace. I smiled at her even though she couldn't see me.

She whispered against my back, "Thank you."

I turned around and pulled her up into my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist and nuzzled my neck with her nose. I could hear Seth walking away from us and I was thankful for that. I wanted to be alone with Bella right now. Gently, I placed Bella back on the ground. She looked up at me with her mystifying eyes and said again, "Thank you." She sniffed as tears filled her eyes. "Leah? Will you kiss me? The right way, no more teasing," she said firmly.

Smiled at her request even though I still didn't think it was the right time for this, but staring into Bella's eyes wasn't helping me at all. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. She huffed. I smirked against the skin of her forehead. Surprising me, she leaned up and kissed my neck, tightening her hold on me. I pulled away and looked deep into her eyes again.

"Let's get back to the others so we can go home," I said, smiling.

She nodded and laced her fingers through mine. We walked slowly back to the others, I had to catch her quite a few times because the rain had made everything so slick.

When we got back, Alice ran forward, "I told you everything would be fine!" She hugged Bella. I fought to bite back a growl. Great. Now Bella would have bloodsucker scent all over her. Bella gave me an apologetic look over the pixie's shoulder and I just shook my head.

Alice pulled back and said, "Come on, Bella. I'll take you home." She ran off with Bella before I even had a chance to say bye to her. Gritting my teeth, I started to walk home. Seth came up beside me, smirking.

"We did good didn't we, sis?"

I smiled. It was pretty much unheard of to be upset in Seth's presence. Even a bitter old harpy like me had a soft spot for him. I bumped his shoulder with mine, causing him to put his hand out to keep from crashing into a tree. I laughed at him.

He growled, then stopped, composed himself and smirked. "Piggy back!" He yelled and then jumped on my back. I gripped just under his knees and took off running home. We charged through the back door, causing mom to jump out of her chair, shattering her coffee mug in the process.

"Oh! It's just you two." She breathed, putting her hand over her heart in an attempt to calm herself down.

I laughed and shook Seth off my back. Mom laughed as Seth fell on his ass. She abruptly stopped and came forward, pulling us both into a fierce hug. "I'm so glad you guys are okay! I heard the howls outside and I was praying you two weren't hurt."

We pulled back from her. Even for a human she still had a lot of strength. Seth smiled at her, "You know it takes a lot more than some filthy bloodsuckers to keep us down! You should have seen us mom! Leah and me kill-"

Mom cut him off by holding up her hand. "No! Stop right there, I don't want to hear any details. My babies did their job and they're both okay; that's all I care about. Now go upstairs and take a shower, you smell like trees."

She pushed us out of the room. Seth and I looked at each other, silently challenging the other to a race to the bathroom. Without warning, we took off at the same time, pushing and shoving each other up the stairs. I ran into my bedroom first.

Seth slammed the bathroom door. "Ha! Wrong way Leah."

I smirked as I grabbed a towel and my clothes. I knew there were no towels in the bathroom and he had no clothes so he'd have to leave the bathroom and go to his room anyway. Seth realized this and groaned loudly. He came out of the bathroom. "Well, played Lee." He mumbled and walked past me. I laughed and went into the bathroom.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, shutting the door behind me.


	8. Chapter 8

(Leah's POV)  
I woke up the next morning smiling for two reasons. One, I didn't have to patrol for a few days. Since the newborn threat was over, Sam wasn't making us patrol very often. Reason two, I get to spend all day with Bella.

That thought had me jumping out of bed and dressing as quickly as possible. I was about to run down the stairs before I looked at my watch, just after nine A.M. Will she be up? I decided to chance it anyway. I went outside and got into my car and drove slowly to her house, just in case she wasn't up yet. When I reached her house, I didn't even have to get out. She must have heard my car because she came running outside and hopped in.

"Hi!" she said a little breathlessly.

I smiled. "Hi there."

We locked eyes and stared at each other. Her brown eyes held a depth I'd never seen before. Her eyes were like a window to her soul.

A loud knock on the window broke our trance. I turned and looked out my window to find Charlie looking at me. I rolled the window down a little.

"Yes, Charlie?" I asked.

He smiled at me. "Have fun whatever you're doing." He went and climbed into his car and was gone.

Bella broke the silence. "Yes, what are we doing?"

I smiled. "Well, we're spending the day together. Do you want to go somewhere or just stay here?"

She bit her lip, thinking for a minute. "Let's do something and come back here."

I nodded. "You want to go rent some movies? My mom and Seth are home so we can come back here to watch them."

"Sure." She smiled and sat back in her seat, staring at me still. I put the car in drive and we went to the small rental place in Forks. They didn't have very much there but we picked out a few and went back to Bella's.

We sat down on her couch with some snacks. I started to eat while Bella popped in the movie. 'Role Models.' So she liked comedy. I stored that piece of information in the back of my head. I wanted to know every little thing about her.

She sat down next to me and we watched the movie, laughing together. I paid more attention to her though; studying her to know just what she thought was funny, did she like one scene more than another? It was enough for me to just hear her laugh. The movie ended and Bella turned to me, "Did you like it?"

I nodded. "It was wonderful." I was speaking more about watching her than the movie, but she didn't need to know that. I thought she was going to put in another movie, but instead she turned to me.

"Do you think you'll stop phasing any time soon?"

I froze. "Why would you ask that?" I asked, genuinely confused.

She looked down. "Well, Jake said that when you find your imprint you stop phasing so you can age with them. Do you think you'll stop phasing so you and I can age together?"

I stared at her, wondering what brought this on. Then I answered her, "I don't know if I can age, Bells. I mean, I wasn't even supposed to phase, let alone imprint, I'm not sure if I can age when I choose to. It may take me longer to get it under control."

She looked back at me now. "How long will it take?"

I shrugged. "Years maybe."

"How many years?" She persisted. When I didn't answer she looked back down and said, "Will I still be around then?"

Oh. I get it. She wants to know if she'll be dead when I finally get control of myself. When I can finally age and be with her until our dying days, would she still be around. I didn't want to think about the idea I could lose her, so I reached over and took her face into my hands. She fixed her brown orbs on mine, anticipating my next words.

"Bella, I can honestly say I don't know what will happen to us in the coming years. I can say that I know all the rest of my remaining years will be spent by your side and if it turns out that I can't age, we'll figure something out then. My life isn't worth living without you, but if you decide you don't want me in your life, I'll go. I'll do whatever you want me to, but I will always love you."

Her eyes filled with tears, and she nodded, the skin of her cheeks rubbing against my palms. I smiled sadly at her and leaned toward her face. She realized what I wanted and exhaled a little, her hot breath washed over my face, sending me into such a state of ecstasy that my eyes fluttered closed. I moved one of my hands to her waist and the other weaved into her soft hair. She tilted her face upwards, while I leaned down, our lips met in the middle. It was a soft kiss at first, her lips were softer than I imagined. Her taste drove me insane, if this is what her lips taste like, her mouth would be fucking heaven.

I lightly ran my tongue along her bottom lip. She obliged, opening up her mouth to me. My tongue explored every inch of her mouth, which I was right, it was heaven. No, heaven couldn't even compare to Bella's mouth. Her breath was sweet and intoxicated me in ways that left me dizzy and wanting more. Bella's tongue began to massage mine and we fought for dominance of her mouth. Wetness pooled between my legs. I wanted Bella, right now. I gripped her waist tighter and pulled her closer to me. She moaned in my mouth and I was gone.

I growled and pushed her back on the couch, straddling her but never breaking our kiss. Her hands pushed my shirt up and she cupped my breasts. That brought me back to reality, Bella and I couldn't do this right now on her dad's couch where he could come home and find us. I gently pushed her hands back down, not wanting to hurt her feelings and I finally pulled away from her.

"Leah? Something wrong?" she gasped out. I sat up and got a good look at her. Her mahogany waves were slipping over the couch cushion, her usually pale face was flushed and her lips were swollen. She was breathing heavily. I couldn't help but feel a little smug.

I smiled and shook my head. "No, nothing's wrong. I just don't think we're ready for that yet."

She smiled back and sat up. I was still between her legs so when she sat up, she was extremely close to me. "I'm sorry, I got carried away." Her sweet breath filled my nose again.  
"Not a problem, really." I said smiling back at her.

She was about to say something, when Charlie's cruiser pulled into the driveway. "Dammit," Bella cursed. She pulled her legs back and sat next to me, we both turned to face the TV as he walked in.

I soon as he saw us, he shook his head, like he knew we were up to something. "I don't even want to know," he said and walked into the kitchen.

Bella looked at me with wide eyes and said, "How did he know?"

I laughed. "It's a little obvious, Bells." I pointed to the TV in front of us, which was blank because the DVD player had cut off by this point.

She blushed. "Oh." I shook with silent laughter at how cute she was.

"I gotta go, but I'll see you later, okay," I said standing up. I hadn't realized it was almost eleven.

Her face fell. "Okay." She walked to the door with me. She hugged me and whispered in my ear, "Can you come back when Charlie's asleep?"

Dear god, please tell me I'm not dreaming this, I thought. I nodded, "Of course." I whispered back and left.

(Bella's POV)  
I shut the door and tried to clear my head. Oh my gosh, did I really just ask Leah to stay the night with me? I did. I really did, okay now what to do? First I need a shower. Then underwear; clean underwear. Thank god I brought that Victoria's secret underwear Renee got me.

"Bells? What are you doing?" Charlie's voice made me jump. I looked up and realized I was standing against the front door.

"Um, nothing." I shook my head. "Nothing at all, I'm not thinking nothing, not doing nothing, I'm not doing nothing." I mentally slapped myself for sounding like an idiot, but I couldn't help it. Leah and I had a magical kiss earlier that I was still dizzy from and it was starting to take a toll on my brain, obviously.

Charlie eyed me, then nodded and walked away. I guess he didn't really want to know what my problem was. I snapped out of my haze and ran up to my bathroom. Charlie was watching TV so I had a little while before Leah came in. I showered quickly then went into my room and slipped on my nightie. Honestly I felt a little silly wearing this thing. It was a pink satin slip with orange lace trim. It was short and slightly revealing. I couldn't believe I was wearing this for Leah especially when I didn't even wear it for Edward.

I went over to my bedroom door and opened it a little. "Night dad!" I called down to him.

"Night, Bells," he answered.

I shut the door and turned around. I realized who was standing in my room by the window and gasped, almost falling into the floor. Leah was standing there, staring at me, her eyes clouded with lust. Her gaze on my body didn't make me feel self conscious or uncomfortable. It made me feel loved and wanted. And Leah definitely wanted me, that much was clear in her eyes.

"Bella…" She breathed, not taking her eyes off me. I smiled at my affect on her.

"See something you like?" I asked in what I wanted to be a seductive voice, however I failed since my voice shook from nerves.

She smiled at me and walked over to stand in front of me. She leaned down and breathed against my neck. "You have no idea."

My knees went weak and I wavered. Leah put her hands on my shoulders and led me over to the bed. We sat down side by side. She took one of my hands into both of hers. I looked at her; lust was still the prominent emotion in her eyes.

She smirked at me, "Are you sure you want to wear that to bed?"

I gulped. Her sultry voice caressed my ears and went straight to my naughty place. And I wasn't wearing any underwear. What the hell was I thinking? This was bad. Or really good, depending on your standpoint. I nodded a little. "Would you rather I wore something else?" I asked.

A new emotion flashed in her eyes and she growled lowly, the soft rumbling sound vibrated against my soul. I looked down at my hand that was wrapped up tightly in Leah's hands.

"Bella?" She asked. I looked up at her through my lashes. Leah growled again. "Okay, that's it."

I started to ask her what was wrong, but I was pinned to the bed with her hovering over me. Her mouth slammed against mine, causing our teeth to collide. Pain was the last thing on my mind, however. Leah's tongue slipped into my mouth and mine eagerly met hers. Leah's leg slipped in between mine, without thinking I grinded my pussy against her leg. She moaned into my mouth and did the same to me. I growled at her.

She pulled back, surprised. "Did you just growl at me?"

"Um, yeah," I said breathlessly.

"That was hot." She said, her blazing eyes boring into mine. I grabbed her hair and pulled her lips back to mine. Our kiss held passion, love and adoration. Feeling her lips against mine made me feel like the most loved person in the world. It turned me on a lot. Leah's left hand touched my knees, her hot skin against mine was indescribable. She lightly ran her hand up my thigh, then seized the hem of my nightie and ripped it off.

"Leah!" I chastised.

"I'll buy you a new one," she promised. She pulled away again and looked down at my now naked body. "On second thought, I think I'd rather destroy all your clothes and force you to walk around like this."

I smirked at her and reached up and pulled her t-shirt over her head. I was rewarded by the sight of her perfect breasts and flat stomach. My mind went back to the day we went cliff diving, I remembered what the rest of her looked like. I couldn't get her shorts off fast enough. She sat on her knees in between my legs and pushed me back on the bed, both of us naked as jaybirds. She kissed my neck and slipped her hand down to my pussy. She tilted her head up and whispered, "Be quiet, Charlie's still awake downstairs."

"What?!" I started to push her back. I could not do this with Charlie still awake right downstairs. He could walk in and catch us at anytime. However, Leah wasn't about to let me go, she slipped her finger into my opening, effectively wiping any and all thoughts of Charlie from my mind.

She slowly slipped a second finger in me and started to pump her fingers in me. Her other hand came up and grabbed my breast, she pinched my nipple, causing me to hiss. Her mouth trailed kisses down to my other breast and she took my nipple into her mouth, her fingers that were inside me never stopping their movement.

I knotted my fingers into her short hair and bit back a moan. She moved her mouth back up to my ear and said, "Still worried about Charlie?"

"Who's Charlie?" I asked breathlessly. She laughed and removed her fingers from me. I was about to ask what was wrong when I realized she was moving down the bed. She trailed her fingers down my body until she leaned down and slid her tongue between my folds. I arched my back at the sensation of her hot tongue inside me. I bit my lip to stay quiet. Her tongue swirled inside me, creating a sensation inside me that I had never imagined I could feel. I came hard and fast. I was almost ashamed I had come so fast, I almost didn't get to enjoy it.

Leah peered up at me from between my legs and smirked. I grabbed her face with both my hands and kissed her hard and passionately. She kissed me back with the same amount of passion and love. Without warning, I pushed Leah back on the bed and climbed on top of her. I slid my fingers in between her wet folds and started to do what she had just done to me.

I leaned down and licked her clit a few times while continuing my finger fucking. She was playing with her nipples, and biting her lip to keep from moaning out loud. She came just as hard as I had, her orgasm shaking her beautiful naked body. When she calmed down she sat up and kissed me. This kiss held just as much passion as before, only it was sweeter, not as rushed.

"Stay with me tonight?" I asked against her lips.

She nodded. "Of course." We laid back down on the bed. I turned on my side, Leah was right behind me. One of her arms was around my stomach, pulling my hips against hers, her other arm was across my chest covering my breasts. I fell asleep, feeling satisfied, safe and utterly happy.


	9. Chapter 9

(Leah's POV)  
Bella's scent. That was the first thing I smelled the next morning. Last night's events were fresh in my mind; I smiled into her hair and breathed in again. She sighed in her sleep. Bella and I were still naked on her bed. Her back was to my chest. I was reveling in the fact I was lying here with the woman I love after such an amazing night as last night. Did I love Bella? Oh yes.

I told her so. "Bella, I love you," I whispered. She was still asleep so I doubt she heard me. I just had to get it off my chest how I felt about her. Her sweet scent surrounded me again. I was enthralled by this woman lying in front of me. I was so lost in my thoughts about Bella, that I didn't even hear Charlie's footsteps in the hallway. He opened the door, effectively scaring the shit out of both Bella and I.

Bella jerked awake at the sound of his voice. "Bella, I'm going- oh! I did not need to see that!" He exclaimed slamming the door shut again. I pulled the sheet over Bella and then we looked at each other in shock. Charlie cleared his throat on the other side of the door and said, "I'm going to work now Bells. I'll uh, see you later." Then he nearly ran down the stairs.

A deafening silence fell in the room until Bella whispered, "Oh. My. God. Tell me that did not just happen." She hid her face in her hands.

"Oh, it happened babe," I said laughing. She groaned. I pulled her hands away from her face and made her look at me. Her face was red from embarrassment. I smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Ready to start the day?" I asked. She nodded. We climbed out of bed. Bella started to gather clothes for a shower.

She turned to me and said, "Um, if you want you can shower with me. Saves water, you know."

I smirked at her. "Okay." I knew there was another reason for her wanting to shower with me. If that's the way she wanted it, that's the way she'll have it.

We went into the bathroom. Bella turned on the water and climbed in first. I followed right behind her. She pulled the shower door closed, and I pounced. Slamming my mouth to hers and pinning her against the wall. She obliged, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. Our tongues enjoyed a playful dance for a few minutes under the warm spray. We were both wet now, and not just from the water from above us. I removed one arm from around Bella's waist. I slid my hand up across her collarbone, then down to her breasts. She tightened her hold on my neck. I gave her left breast a hard squeeze, she moaned into my mouth. I pinched her nipple causing her to growl.  
That growl was just too fucking hot. I moved my hand down her stomach and finally reached my original destination. My wet fingers slipped between her folds and easily glided into her wet entrance. She gasped and broke our kiss for the first time, only to bury her face in my neck and bite down, hard.

I gasped this time. "Fuck, Bella!" I almost yelled. She started to kiss my neck, causing my fingers to work faster inside her. She removed her arm from around my neck and glided her hand down my wet body before slipping her fingers into my pussy. I quickened my movements inside her, causing her to moan loudly and move her fingers faster in me. "Fuck yes, Leah! Faster!" She screamed.

I did as she asked. Her pace matched mine; we were both nearing our climax. Our moans were echoing off the bathroom walls, making us seem louder than we actually were. Our hands stilled as we came together. Bella leaned up to kiss me hard again as we calmed down from our climax. When we had calmed down, Bella and I quickly washed each other's hair and bodies and stole kisses every chance we got. When we were finished, Bella handed me a towel I didn't need since my high temperature was causing me to dry faster.  
We dressed quickly and went downstairs for breakfast. As we were eating, Bella randomly said, "I like this."

I looked up at her, "Brown sugar oatmeal?"

She grinned, shaking her head then moved her hands between us, "This. I like being able to go to sleep with you every night, waking up with you every morning, eating with you and not having to worry about accidentally cutting myself so you won't be tempted to kill me," she rambled. "I don't walk on eggshells around you, or your family for that matter."

This made me smile. "I like it too." My answer was simple, but it made a smile spread across Bella's face. She took my hand across the table and held it as we finished our food. We were almost done with our meal when there was a knock on her front door. Bella huffed and glared at the front door, then stood up and stomped off to answer it. I listened as she swung the door open, sighed heavily and demanded, "What do you want?"

I almost laughed it was so cute. Then I heard Jake's voice ask, "Where's Leah?" I sighed and went to the door to stand behind Leah. Subconsciously, my hand slipped around her waist. Jake looked down and glared at my arm, then turned his glare to my face. I ignored him, "You want something?"

"Sam says you have to patrol with Quil and Paul." He growled. I sighed and turned to Bella.

"I'll see you later okay?" I said, staring into her beautiful deep brown eyes.

She nodded. "Okay." She leaned up on her tippy toes and kissed me, I kissed her back passionately.

It was a wonderful kiss until Jake sighed impatiently. "Now, Leah!" he yelled. I broke away from Bella and glared at him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella glaring just as hard.  
"I'm going, dammit, now fuck off and let me say goodbye to my girlfriend," I snapped. I kissed her quickly and whispered, "I'll be back later."

Jacob sighed again. This time, Bella pulled away first. "Jake, stop." Then she looked at me, "You should go before Sam gets mad."

I nodded and walked out the door, glaring at Jake on my way to the woods.

(Bella's POV)  
I watched Leah walk across the yard to the woods. Once she was out of sight I turned back to Jacob. "Can I talk to you?" he asked sadly. I nodded and went inside. He followed me in and shut the door. We didn't make it to the living room before he grabbed my arm and spun me around. Before I knew what he was doing, he pressed his lips to mine and forced his tongue inside my mouth. I tried to pull away, but his arms were locked in an iron grip around me.

I couldn't even begin to describe how wrong this felt. He was too forceful, too rough and he just wasn't Leah. When he finally finished his assault on my lips, he pulled back with a smile on his lips. I felt the sudden urge to punch that look off his face, but that would only hurt me more than him, so I fought the urge.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" I shouted.

"Kissing you. You know you enjoyed that too so don't stand there with that look on your face," he said.

I shook my head. "I love Leah, and only Leah. I'm sorry if you think otherwise now please leave," I said pointing to the door.

"You do realize that you and Leah wouldn't even be together if it weren't for imprinting? You disliked her before and she hated you. How fucking fair is it that the bitter harpy who wasn't good enough for Sam imprints on the girl I've loved forever?! It's not right." He shook his head furiously.

"Jacob Black, don't you ever talk about her like that again!" I screamed. "I told you, I love her."

He clenched his fists. "Imprinting ruins everything! If it weren't for imprinting, Leah would still be with Sam and you would be with me."

I shook my head. "I don't believe that. Imprints are soul mates and you find your soul mate one way or another. Sam would have ended up with Emily and I would have ended up with Leah anyway. Imprinting didn't ruin anything, it fixed things."

"She hated you, Bella!" He screamed at me. "I know that because I had to spend every second on patrol with her listening to how much she hated you, then one good look at you made her love you and took you away from me forever. She hated your guts, Bella. She only loves you because of imprinting," he said. "Just a couple weeks ago you were in love with Edward and now you're saying you love Leah. Feelings don't develop that fast, Bella. They just don't."

Those words cut me deep. I could feel my heart breaking as he spoke. I knew it was somewhat true. Leah had treated me coldly every time I'd seen her. I wrote it off as her being upset over her break up with Sam. Hearing Jacob speak these words was soul crushing. I loved her on my own. I didn't have some wolfy claim on her like she did on me.  
I kept my face expressionless as I started to speak. "I just don't get you. You were the one pushing me to talk to her and figure out what this imprint meant. Did you just want to me to break up with Edward and be just friends with Leah so you could have me? I thought you of all people would be happy for us. Get out. Now."

He glared at me and then left. Tears started to form in my eyes, so I ran upstairs and flopped down on my bed letting them flow freely. I heard the back door open downstairs.  
"Bella?" Leah called. Fuck, I thought. She's going to see me like this. I didn't answer her, hoping she'd just leave. She didn't though. I heard her coming up the stairs and then the door opened.

(Leah's POV)  
After leaving Bella's house, I stripped and phased, only to have Quil and Paul see my thoughts the moment I did. Everything I did with Bella last night was there on display for them to see. I quickly hid my thoughts. Paul growled at me for doing so.

'Please god, show me more!' Quil begged.

'No Quil, so fuck off or I'm getting Sam.' I said. Quil groaned. He didn't stop begging for a while, but then backed off and started thinking about other things. So, I let my thoughts slip by accident and Quil got a mindful of Bella and I.

'Holy fuck that's hot!' Embry said.

'Embry? What the hell are you doing here?' I asked, hiding my thoughts again.

'Your shift is over, you can go home.' He said.

Quil was quick to jump in, 'Actually, could you go back to Bella's house?' He was only asking so he could get more images of Bella and I together.

'Of course that's the only reason! I mean when Jared thinks about his imprint it's annoying as hell. Don't get me wrong Kim's a nice girl but I don't want to think about them together. I don't want to see Emily through Sam's eyes. But you can think about Bella all you want. You have my permission.' Quil told me happily.

'Mine too.' Paul chimed in.

'Thanks assholes.' I said right before I phased outside of Bella's house. I couldn't smell Jake or Charlie inside. Good. Maybe I'll get a repeat of this morning. I've been patrolling all day so I'm quite a dirty girl. Wonder if Bella will wash me again. I wondered as I walked in her backdoor.

"Bella?" I called out. She didn't answer, but I could sense she was upstairs, so I went up to her bedroom to find her crying on her bed. I dropped down next to her. "Bells, what's wrong?" I said desperately. I was praying she'd just tell me already.

She sat up and wiped her eyes then told me everything. I closed my eyes trying to hold my own tears in. "Bella, none of that is true. Okay, maybe I disliked you a little bit, but I only did because you were dating a vampire. Imprinting doesn't make me love you. You make me love you. Everything you do and say and act makes me love you. Imprinting just showed me how blind I was. I agree with what you told Jacob, imprinting doesn't ruin things, it fixes things. I was in love with Sam too much to see that we really didn't belong together. Especially now that I see what I was missing while I was wasting my time on him." I said smiling at her. 

She laughed once and nodded. "Thanks, Leah."

I kissed her cheek. "No problem baby." I stood up.

She grabbed my hand. "Where are you going?" She panicked.

I sighed. "I'm going to find Jake and kick his ass."

She smiled. "Can I come?"

"Why not?" We left her room and went downstairs. Bella's truck was much too slow, so I phased and she hopped on my back. Embry was still patrolling with Jared and they told me Jake was at Sam and Emily's. They started to head towards Sam's too. I guess everyone wanted to see me kick Jake's ass after what he said.

When we got there, everyone in the pack was in the backyard. I completely forgot they were grilling tonight, huh. Sam was at the grill, Emily at his side. Kim was on the patio chatting with Emily. Quil was next to Kim with Claire on his lap. Jacob, Paul, Seth, Collin and Brady were playing football in the yard.

Bella slid off my back and started out of the woods. Sam spotted her first, "Bella? How'd you get here?"

"Leah," she said simply and went to sit with Kim, who smiled at her. I phased back at the same time Embry and Jared did. I stormed out of the woods glaring at Jacob.

"You fucking bastard," I yelled. Embry and Jared walked out of the woods behind me, chuckling. The guys all stopped and faced me. Jacob swallowed when he saw my expression.

"Leah," Sam warned from the patio.

I turned my furious glare on him, causing him to shrink back a little, and then I focused back on Jacob. I didn't even pause as I reached him. Just drew back and punched him square in the jaw.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He jumped back up, shaking.

I started to shake as well. Sam appeared out of nowhere and stood in between us, but I paid no attention to him.

"You're asking what's wrong with me? Are you fucking serious? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelled.

I heard Seth ask what was going on but Jared told him just to watch.

Sam stepped in now. "All right, explain what's going on, right now."

I glared at Jacob. "Yeah Jake, tell him."

Jacob glared back at me. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I scoffed. "Like hell you don't. What was that little episode about at Bella's house after I left today?"

"Bella wanted it as much as I did," he said. That was all I could take, I lunged at him, phasing in the process. I swung my paw at Jacob, who had phased also. My paw connected with his head sending him crashing into a tree.  
'Stop this now!' Sam ordered. Jacob and I both froze. 'Jacob, explain why Leah is beating the hell out of you.'

Jacob showed Sam everything that had happened that day. From kissing Bella to every word he said to her. I growled at him and hit him again with my paw.

'Jake, you have to take Leah's patrols for the next month. What in the world made you think that kissing another wolf's imprint would be a good idea? You're also not allowed to see Bella alone. You may only see her if Leah brings her over.' Sam ordered and then phased back.

Jacob growled at me. I ignored him and went into the woods to phase. After I had phased human, I realized I didn't have any clothes. Fuck. I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see Bella. She held out some clothes to me. "I thought you might need these." She smiled. I smiled back and took the clothes from her. I stared into her eyes the entire time I was getting dressed. Bella watched me with lust filling her eyes. When I was finished, I pinned her against a tree and kissed her.

I wanted to go further, but Jared yelled from the backyard, "We know what you're doing in there!" I heard someone tell him to shut up and then a crash like someone had broke something. Emily started yelling so I figured I was right. I sighed and took Bella's hand then led her back to the house.


	10. Chapter 10

(A few months later- Fall)

(Bella's POV)  
To say I was depressed would be an understatement. I missed my Leah. I was going to school in Seattle now and Leah was stuck in La Push. Sam would only allow her to visit on the weekends, unfortunately. Which meant I had two wonderful days with her and then five excruciatingly lonely days without her. I ended up going to The International Culinary Schools at the Art Institute of Seattle so that I could study culinary arts. When I told Leah this the pack almost tried to throw me a party. I sighed and threw my textbook aside. I wasn't really reading it anyway. The book made a loud thump as it crashed to the floor.

My roommate, Kelly gasped and put her hand over her heart. "Geez, Bella could you be any fucking louder?" she snapped.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Whatever," she said angrily. I'm pretty sure she hates me for no reason at all other than she has to live with me. She had met Leah before but she didn't know Leah was my girlfriend. I think I wanted to keep it that way. If she hated me now I could only imagine what she would do if she found out I was a lesbian. 

Lesbian. That word still seemed weird to me. I had never imagined myself with a woman before. Of course now that I was with Leah, it didn't matter. I would never be with anyone like I am with her. I laid back on the bed, just as there was a knock on the door. Kelly looked over and gave me a pointed look. I sighed and stood up wondering who it could be. It was probably someone for Kelly anyway. I opened the door.

"Bella!" Came a high-pitched musical voice before I was tackled by something hard and cold. I looked down and smiled. Alice.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, "Hey Alice. What are you doing here?"

She pulled back. "Well, I didn't really have anything to do, so I came to see you! Let's go out, come on." She pulled me out the door before I could say a single word.

As we were leaving the building, Alice didn't stop talking. "I'm so excited to see you right now! How are you classes going? Do you like college? Are you sure you want to live in a dorm? We can get you an apartment close to campus if you want. That way you won't have a roommate. I have this feeling that she doesn't like you that much. Do you want to eat or should we just go shopping right off?"

She finally stopped talking as we got out to her car. I stared at her, "Do we have to go shopping?"

She glared at me. "Yes. Let's go." She pushed me into the car then ran to the driver's side and we were off. Alice told me everything that was going on with the family since I'd been home. Edward was still distraught over losing me to Leah, but I really had no pity for him. I didn't belong with him and it would have only hurt him, Leah and I if I had stayed with him.

We pulled into a parking lot of an expensive looking store. I shot Alice a glance. "Really Alice, what are we doing here?"

She smiled, "You'll see." She opened the car door and skipped inside, I dragged along behind her. This was not going to be fun.

After a few hours of looking around, Alice picked out a dress and shoved it in my face. "Go put this on."

I took it and walked off to the dressing room dragging my feet. I had just closed the door when Alice knocked on it.

"Bella, take these." She handed me a box when I opened the door.

"Okay." I said setting them down next to me. I slipped into the dress and looked in the mirror. It was a deep purple color and stopped just above my knees. (Picture on profile.) I thought it looked nice. Alice sure did know how to pick clothes.

I bent down and took the top of the box the shoes were in. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw them. 

"Alice! Six inch heels! Are you insane!?"

She opened the door and came in. "Bella," she started. "You are five-foot-four. Leah is six feet. You need the extra height, trust me. Put them on."

I started to shake my head but the look in her eyes told me not to argue. I slipped the shoes on, wobbling almost instantly. Alice placed her hand on my elbow, catching me. "See, Bells, you look gorgeous."

I looked at her. "Alice, I can't stand in these things, let alone walk."

She shrugged. "Leah will catch you."

I huffed. Alice made me change back into my clothes and she bought the dress and shoes for me, despite my protests.

She took me to get something to eat after that. As I was eating I asked, "So what's this for Alice? You mentioned Leah, did she send you to do this? I mean, I haven't seen you in months and you just show up and take me shopping? What's up?"

She shook her head. "No, I just wanted you to have something nice to wear." She smiled. I didn't believe her for a second, but I let it go. She dropped me off at my dorms after that and I went inside.

Unfortunately Kelly was still up. She glared at me as I came in but I ignored her. I put my things away and then got ready for bed. Wednesday. Two more days and I would see Leah again. She was coming over Friday night and I couldn't wait to see her. Even though I'd just seen her Sunday. Time always seemed to drag when my Leah wasn't with me.  
After my classes were over I ran back to my dorm to wait for Leah to call me. She had patrol this afternoon and should be off when I got in. I ran in the door to find Kelly sitting on her bed. My dress that Alice had bought me was hanging in my closet. That whole episode still confused me. She was up to something, for sure.

"Your phone rang while you were out. It was your girlfriend." She said.

Oh my god, did Leah tell her? "What do you mean?" I asked dumbly.

She glared at me. "She said she was your girlfriend. Leah she said her name was. Why didn't you tell me you're a lesbian?"

"We're not friends. Why would I tell you something personal about me when I barely even like you?" I snapped.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you could have told me that before I walked around in my underwear in front of you! I basically gave you a peepshow!"

I sighed. "I only have eyes for Leah. Nothing about you interests me in the slightest. So don't worry about that." I walked over to my bed and put my things down.

"I don't want a lesbian living with me," she stated coldly.

I spun around. "I have zero interest in you, Kelly. I barely like living with you, why would you think I would be interested you in a romantic way?" I couldn't believe she was saying this.

"What if I have friends over and you hit on them?" she asked.  
I rolled my eyes, "Oh you are ridiculous. Just because I'm dating a girl doesn't mean I'm interested in every other girl on the planet. I'm in love with Leah, we're soul mates, okay. No one in heaven or earth will change the fact that I'm with her. Get over yourself already," I said and then climbed into bed, effectively ending the conversation. It was a little early for me to go to bed, but Kelly was exhausting me.

The next day Kelly and her friends decided to be cute and call me a dyke every chance they got. I ignored them as best I could. Nothing they said really hurt me anyway. That night in our dorm, Kelly made it a point to ignore me and talk on the phone really loud about her lesbian roommate. I rolled over and faced the wall. When she started to talk about Leah, I lost it.

She said, "Her girlfriend is this really tall Indian chick. She's got really short hair and is pretty in a lesbian firefighter kind of way." She laughed.

I shot up out of bed. "Listen, bitch. You can talk about me all you want to, but don't you dare talk about Leah like that ever again."

She smirked, "And what are you gonna do about it?"

I glared at her. "Try it again and we'll see what I do," I spat through my teeth.

She started to talk about something else so I went back to bed. I sighed. One more day and I'll see her again.

Friday was the same as Thursday. Kelly and her friends kept bothering me about Leah. I was almost in tears by the time I got back to the dorm. I'd talked to my RA about getting a new roommate. Apparently Kelly had talked to him also so we would be moved quicker than usual.

I was sitting in my dorm when my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Bella," Leah breathed on the other end.

I smiled into the phone. "Thank god it's you. When are you getting here?" I asked.

She was quiet. "Bells, I can't make it tonight. I promise I'll see you tomorrow night, though, okay? I was just calling to wish you a good night. I have to go patrol now."

My heart sank. "Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow," I said sadly.  
"Sweet dreams, honey. I love you."

"I love you too." We hung up. I tossed my phone into the floor and fell back on the bed. I sighed heavily. What a depressing week.


	11. Chapter 11

(Bella's POV)  
I was nearly bouncing in excitement. Leah was going to be here today. It didn't even feel like it had been a week since I'd seen her. It seems like it was so long ago. I wasn't even expecting it when Alice came barging in the room. I jumped nearly a foot in the air but she didn't notice. That or she didn't care she'd scared the shit out of me.

"Okay, up," she demanded, pulling me off the bed and planting me in a chair. After a little while, she had my hair and make up done quite nicely. She handed me my dress and said, "Okay I'm leaving now. Put that on now and wear those shoes." She gave me a pointed look. I groaned and nodded. I slipped into my dress and my heels since I had a feeling Alice would be quizzing Leah on whether or not I wore them.

I just finished slipping on my shoes when there was a knock on my door again. The pull on my heart told me that it was Leah. I smiled. "Come in."

The door opened and there was my love. My smile widened at the sight of her. My eyes swept over her body and my eyes widened. She was wearing a red dress that clung to her in all the right spots. It stopped just above her knees and luckily for me, she was wearing black flats. (Picture on profile) Her long tan legs were perfectly toned and made my knees weak. She smiled at me, noticing I was appraising her.

I quickly stood up, which was a mistake in these ridiculous shoes. She was across the room but still managed to catch me before I fell. I smiled at her. She smiled back. "Ready?" I nodded. I realized I was almost looking her in the eyes. In these ridiculous shoes I was about five-ten, Leah still had two inches on me, though.

She laced her fingers through mine and we left. We passed Kelly on the stairs and she gave me a disgusted look. Leah glared at her and she looked away quickly. Leah led me out to her car and she started to drive.

"Where are we going?" I asked innocently.

She smirked, "You'll see."

I sighed and sat back in my seat. A few minutes later we pulled into a parking lot. Leah parked and then came around to meet me as I was climbing out of the car. She took my hand the instant I closed my door. I looked around and realized we were at the Paramount Theater. Leah smiled as she noticed me smiling as I realized we were seeing a play.  
Once we got inside, Leah led me straight to our seats. We were in the box seats, so we had another couple sitting next to us and that was it. Only the four of us. I still had no idea what we were seeing since Leah had hid it from me.

We took our seats and waited. I used this opportunity to look over Leah again. I'd never seen a more beautiful woman in my life. She was completely flawless in every single way. The lights dimmed and I looked toward the stage. The play began and I gasped as I realized we were seeing "Phantom of the Opera."

I squeezed Leah's hand to let her know I appreciated this. She squeezed back gently. I sat on the edge of my seat during the whole play. I didn't even move during intermission, I just talked happily with Leah about everything I loved about "Phantom of the Opera". Leah just stared at me and smiled the whole time I was talking. She was hanging onto every word I said.

When it was over, I skipped out of the theater hanging onto Leah's arm so I wouldn't fall in this monstrous shoes. Leah didn't say much, she just listened to me talk. Leah stopped at a restaurant for us to eat at.

On the drive home, Leah pulled over on the side of the road. "What's wrong?" I asked her, touching her arm.

She looked over at me, "What's wrong is you look too hot in that dress. Although, you'd look better with it off." She reached over and pulled my face to hers, our lips colliding in the middle. She easily slid into the backseat, pulling me with her. Her tongue invaded my mouth.

She was on her back against the door, and I was between her legs. She slipped her hands under my dress and pulled it up over my head. "Goddamn, Bella why aren't you wearing underwear?" she asked as she undid my bra. I smiled and attacked her neck with my lips, nipping her soft flesh with my teeth. I slowly slid my hands up her dress and pulled off her boy shorts she was wearing. So she was wearing underwear and I wasn't. She lifted her dress off of her for me. The sight of Leah naked was still a lot for me to handle  
Leah tightly closed her legs around my waist as I slipped two fingers between her folds. She knotted her fingers in my hair and kissed me again. Her tongue caressed mine and I couldn't help but moan at the combination of her sweet taste and just her touching me.

Leah's hands went to my breasts and she pinched my nipples, causing me to moan again. She growled in my mouth and then pushed me back against the other door. One of my legs was still between hers. She pulled my hips toward hers so that our pussies were touching. We started to grind against each other.

"Fuck yes, Leah!" I cried as our motions increased speed. She gripped the back of my thigh tightly. We were in a small space and I was amazed we were able to do this in the backseat of Leah's car.

My hands gripped the back of the headrest tightly as I came, "Oh god! Leah!"

"Oh Bella!" She moaned as she came with me. We stayed there, breathing heavily for a moment. Then she reached out and took my hand. She gently pulled me over to her for a passionate kiss that made me hot all over again. She smiled into our kiss.

She pulled back and leaned her forehead against mine. Her arms caressed my shoulders lovingly. "I love you." She whispered.

"I love you, Leah." I whispered back. She tilted her head up and kissed me sweetly.

A knock on the window interrupted us. "Fuck." Leah said under her breath. A flashlight was turned on and shined in the window, but the windows were too fogged up. The person knocked on the window again.

Leah grabbed her dress and placed it over her naked body, but didn't put it on. She crawled in the front seat and rolled the window down. "Yes?" She asked.

"Seattle Police Department, mind telling me what you're doing out here?" a male voice asked. Oh for the love of Layne!

Leah said coolly, "Well, I'm just out here having sex with my girlfriend."

My eyes bugged out of my head. Please tell me she didn't just say that. The police officer looked past Leah and back at me to see that she was in fact, telling the truth. My cheeks were a bright red from embarrassment.

"Um, okay then. Have a nice night," the cop said quickly and then walked away. Leah looked at me and smiled.

"What did you tell him that for?" I asked.

"I didn't want to lie. Plus it got him to leave us alone didn't it?" She smirked.

I sighed and slipped my dress back on. I climbed into the front seat next to Leah. She took my hand again and sighed. "I guess I should get you home now. I have patrol in a few hours."

My heart sank. "Okay," I whispered. She turned the car on and started driving again. We reached my dorm all too quickly. She walked me up to my dorm and kissed me good night. Then she was gone. I felt the all too familiar pain in my chest as she walked away. I went inside and went to sleep.

The next day, Leah had to patrol so I wouldn't see her until that afternoon. When I woke up, I realized something was different. I looked around, Kelly wasn't in here, but someone was.

"Hi Bella," he whispered.

I stared at him. "What are you doing in here, Edward?" I asked.

He laughed. "I wanted to see you and tell you this was your last chance."

"Last chance for what?"

"I love you, more than anything. When a vampire mates with someone it's almost like imprinting. I want you to come back to me."

"Not a chance, Edward," I spat. "I'm with Leah, get over it."

He ground his teeth together. "That's too bad."

"What?" I asked. He didn't answer, I barely registered him moving and then there was nothing.

(Leah's POV)  
I was patrolling the La Push border when the scent of a vampire hit me.

'I'm on my way.' Paul said having heard my thoughts.

'Wait, it's a Cullen.'

'Still, why are they on our land?'

'I don't know,' I said. Paul howled to alert the others. Just as Sam and the others phased, Alice came into view. "Why are you here?" Sam demanded.

The vampire ignored him, looking at me instead. "Leah! Oh my gosh! It's Bella. I didn't see the vision until it was too late. You have to get to Seattle now." She panicked.

Sam asked, "What happened Alice?"

My mind was already racing with different scenarios. What could have possibly happened to her that Alice would risk her life to come out here to tell me. Paul nudged me in the side and said, 'Calm down, Lee.'

I turned my attention back to Alice and growled, acknowledging her again.

"Edward, he's going to bite her."


	12. Chapter 12

(Leah's POV)  
No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't stop Edward. It didn't matter that I was the fastest wolf in the La Push pack; I didn't get there in time. When I reached Seattle with the boys Bella was gone. Edward was nowhere to be seen. We followed his trail as far as it went and then it just stopped. I went nuts, destroying trees in the forest. My imprint, my love, my Bella, had been kidnapped by a vampire who just so happened to be her ex-boyfriend.

Alice had another vision and said, "He took her to Canada." She took off running and I followed her. I soon passed her and she fell behind, but yelled to me to tell me what direction to go.

I could see in Sam's mind that Alice stopped. Sam poked her with his nose and Alice whispered, "We're too late. He bit her."

I howled, a heartbreaking sound to all that heard. A flash of white caused me too look up and right into the wise eyes of Carlisle Cullen.

"Leah, I'm sorry my son chose to do this. But you have to find Bella, she'll need you more than anything," he said. Alice appeared and smiled sadly at me.

"This way," she said and then ran off, I followed of course.

After a few minutes, I heard a piercing scream rip through the air and cut through my heart. Bella.

I ran faster and came to a house. There was a hand around my heart pulling me forward, Bella was in there, I knew. Breaking down the front door, I found Bella writhing in pain on the floor, Edward stood over her. I didn't think, for that would give him an advantage over me. I just leapt onto him. My mind was a blank as I fought with him, my mind in a haze. I killed him in just a few minutes. The heart-wrenching screams of my imprint in pain drove me to madness. I could do nothing to stop her pain, it was almost too much to handle.  
Carlisle came in the front door and went to Bella. Without thinking, I attacked him too. He went through the wall behind him.

'Leah, stop!' Sam yelled in my head, I dropped down under the weight of his command. Carlisle came back in the room and smiled nervously at me before checking over Bella.  
"There's too much venom in her veins, she's going to turn," he said solemnly.

I tried to phase back so that I could talk to Carlisle, but I couldn't. Too much rage and hurt were pumping through me, I couldn't calm down. Jacob came inside with Embry in their human forms. They gathered the pieces of Edward and took them outside.

'They broke the treaty, Sam. He bit a human and not just any human, an imprint,' I said.

Alice entered the house and looked up at me with a terrified expression. "Leah, please don't attack the rest of us. What Edward did was his own choice. I tried to stop him, I came to get you, remember?"

'She's right, Leah. We won't attack the Cullen's because of what Edward did,' Sam said.

Carlisle looked up to me, "We should take Bella to our house, she'll be turned in a few days. You may see her then." He stood up, lifting Bella's writhing form with him and ran out the door. The rest of us followed him home. Alice opened the door for Carlisle and they went inside the Cullen's house. I started to go in the woods and phase, but Sam stopped me.

'Where do you think you're going?' he asked.

'I'm going to phase so that I can go inside and stay with Bella during her transformation. She'll need me.' I answered.

He shook his massive head. 'No, you're going home with us.'

The rest of the pack tensed up, sensing a fight. I growled at Sam. 'And just why the hell can't I stay with her?'

'It's too dangerous. You just killed Edward Cullen and you want to stay in a house with his family? Do you know what they might do to you when you're the only one there? There are six of them remember? Not only that but when Bella wakes up, she'll be a newborn. She won't be able to control herself, she might hurt you or worse, kill you. You're going to La Push,' he said.

For some reason I didn't believe that the Cullen's would hurt me. 'They didn't want Edward to bite Bella anymore than we did, they won't hurt me. And Bella needs me, Sam. I can't just leave her.'

'You can and you will. Now let's go,' he said in his Alpha voice.

I tried to fight the command. 'Sam, what if it were Emily?'

He growled at me. 'Leah, I care about you almost as much as I care about Emily and I'm not leaving you here with a bunch of vampires!'

'They won't hurt me,' I said, feeling tears well up in my eyes. I needed to stay with Bella.

Sam shook his head again, 'No, you're coming home, now let's go!' The Alpha command forced my feet to move without my permission.

We were almost at the tree line when a voice called out, "Leah." I turned to see Alice and Rosalie standing there. Rosalie said, "We'll take care of her. Don't worry." Her voice was sincere, but I still wondered if I could trust her. I nodded slightly and then walked on.

(Rosalie's POV)  
Of course I was pissed that the dogs had killed my brother. I was even more pissed because my brother had bitten Bella when she didn't want it. She was living a happy life as a human with her mutt. Edward ruined that, and Bella's mutt killed him for it. The sadness for my brother's death contradicted my anger toward him for turning Bella against her will.

When Carlisle carried her in the house, my cold dead heart broke for her. She was like me now. Her choice for humanity was ripped away from her, she was forced to live like us now. It was worse for her because her choice was taken away by someone she once loved and trusted. Maybe she had wanted to be turned when she was with Edward but obviously she had changed her mind. 

So I promised Leah that I would take care of Bella and I meant it. We were equals now. I just hoped that Bella wouldn't be as bitter about this as I am. I went up to my room where Carlisle had put Bella on my bed. I sat down next to her and took her hand.

"Leah," she choked out.

I shook my head. "No, Bella honey it's Rosalie. Don't worry, this will all be over soon," I lied; It would be three days before this painful transformation was over. I stroked her hand and pushed her hair back from her head.

Emmett came in then and sat down next to me. "I can't believe Edward did this," he said, shaking his head.

"I know. I can't believe he was so stupid." Bella groaned in pain and gripped my hand tighter. Emmett leaned his head on my shoulder. He placed his hand over mine.

"We'll take care of her though," he said. I nodded.

"Of course. She and I are equals now." I looked down at my lap.

Emmett pulled me tightly to him. "Don't be sad, Rosie. You gotta remember, sometimes life throws things your way and you just have to deal with them, like this. You can't control every aspect of your life. You just have to make the best of things, like I do. I don't want to be a vampire anymore than you do, but I've made the best of it. I mean, I can run really fast, I can break a tree in half if I just kick it. You have to look at the bright side of things, Rosie." He motioned to Bella. "Like this. I don't think of this as losing a brother, I look at this as I'm gaining a sister. Bella's gonna be so much fun to have around, just think about it! You and Alice have someone else to dress up, and hey since she's with Leah, you'll have two new girls to dress up and shop with. Two new sisters, can you believe it?"

Emmett sounded so excited, I couldn't help but smile and nod. "Yeah, you're right." I kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Em."

He rubbed my shoulder, "No problem babe."

I looked back to Bella. She was breathing heavily and sweating, so I placed my hand over her forehead in an attempt to cool her down. It worked a little, but I knew nothing could cool down the fire that was coursing through her veins right now. I remembered my transformation, and it was not something I wanted to go through again. It was certainly not something I wished on anyone else.

Bella groaned loudly and squirmed under my touch. I removed my hand, but she groaned louder. I replaced my hand and sighed. Was there nothing else I could do for her? Emmett sensed my distress and rubbed my shoulder. My eyes locked with Bella's. Peering into her eyes, I saw every once of pain she was in, her agony, her heartbreak from being betrayed by Edward, her distress from being away from Leah. My heart broke again for this poor girl.

I put my head in my hands and shook my head. Downstairs I could hear Alice and Jasper talking with Carlisle and Esme. I knew they heard my next words though. As soon as the three little words left my lips, all the chatter downstairs stopped.

"What about Charlie?"


	13. Chapter 13

(Rosalie's POV)  
For the past two and a half days, I've been sitting here watching Bella become one of us. She didn't want this anymore than I had wanted it. Of course, we were both turned for different reasons. Carlisle turned me to save me and become part of his family. Bella was turned so that Edward could keep her away from Leah.

I was mad as hell at Sam for keeping Leah away from Bella. Bella called for Leah more times than I could count, and each time I had to tell her Leah couldn't come. I wanted to cross the damn treaty line and give Sam an ass kicking. He deserved it for what he was doing right now. The only wolf that had come by was Jacob. That was yesterday. I'd smelled him before I saw him, so I went out in the yard to meet him.

As soon as he saw me he asked, "How's Bella?"

"She's changing still. Should be done by tomorrow, why isn't Sam letting Leah come sit with her?" I asked.

Jacob sighed. "He thinks it's too dangerous for her. He thinks you all may want to take revenge on her because she killed Edward."

I shook my head. "We'd never do that. Sure, I'm mad as hell about the whole situation, but Edward took Bella's choice away and Leah got revenge for it. Bella needs Leah right now and I think she should be here. Speaking of which, why are you allowed to be here, but not Leah?"

He smiled slyly. "Sam doesn't know I'm here. I was on patrol with Embry and I had to come check on Bella. Leah isn't doing well at all and needed to know just a little update about her transformation. I'm sure when Sam phases later he'll see it and I'll catch hell for coming here alone, but whatever."

I nodded and thought for a minute. "Do you want to come upstairs and see her? That way you have something to show Leah for your efforts?"

He followed me silently up the stairs. Jasper gave me a questioning look but I ignored his ass for now. I knew he would bitch at me later for bringing a wolf in the house, but he could fuck off too. I wasn't in the mood for anyone's arguing.

We entered my bedroom to find Alice changing Bella's clothes. She had a blue silk dress half on her body, luckily Bella was wearing a bra or Jacob would have gotten an eyeful. Alice smiled guiltily.

I crossed my arms and shifted my weight to one foot. "Alice. Whatcha doing?" I asked with humor in my voice and a smile on my face.  
She laughed a small laugh and said, "Well, when Bella wakes up she can't be in the clothes that she was wearing when she was bitten. It may….." She thought for a minute, and finished, "Bring up bad memories?"

Jacob laughed with me. I shook my head and said, "Okay, finish up and when you're done, get out."

She smiled brightly and finished putting Bella into the dress. A few minutes later, the door swung open and Alice skipped through with a bundle of Bella's clothes in her hands. "All done," she chirped and went down the stairs. I shook my head and went inside my room, Jacob followed. We stopped at Bella's bedside and Jacob looked down at her. He took in her appearance with sadness in his eyes. Her skin was already a paler white than her normal skin, but she wasn't done turning pale quite yet. Her eyes had blue rings around them; they would be purple by the time she finished.

Jacob shook his head and ran from the room. I heard the back door close and then a heartbreaking howl came from the woods. I wasn't sure if it was Jacob or Leah, though. It was so sad I had to sit down in a chair. I let out a soft sob and put my face in my hands.

Emmett came in the room, "Rosie, are you okay?" He asked pulling me into his arms.

I shook my head against him. "No. I'm not."

He nodded against me and just held me as I sobbed without tears. That was yesterday, though, when Bella was only halfway through her transformation. She would be waking up anytime now. I sat still as stone watching her. Her heart gave its final few beats and stopped.

I sighed sadly. "Bella, are you awake?" I asked softly.

I heard the rest of my family coming up the stairs then. Emmett pushed me behind him, Jasper stood in front of Alice and Carlisle in front of Esme. Bella stirred and sat up too fast.

"Whoa," she murmured. Alice giggled, causing Bella to shift her attention to us.

She smiled. "Hey. What am I doing here?"

"You don't remember, Bella?" I asked softly.

She shook her head, "Not really. What happened?" she was starting to panic.

Carlisle turned to me, "Rosalie, you talk to her. Jasper, stay with them, just in case." Then he, Esme, Alice and Emmett were gone."

Bella looked at me wearily. I sat down on the bed next to her. "What's the last thing you remember?"

She thought for a moment. "I came back from class and Edward was in my dorm. I don't remember what he said or why he was there?" She looked up at me. "Why can't I remember?"

"Edward hit you, apparently too hard," Jasper started.

"Why?" She looked between the two of us.

Together, we slowly explained everything that had happened. She started to sob when it was over and I hugged her. "Bella, may I tell you my story?" I asked. She nodded and I told her about my history. She sat as still as I had during the whole thing. Jasper didn't meet my eyes when I was finished. He knew my story of course, but he was a good southern gentleman and couldn't imagine anyone doing to a woman what had been done to me.

Bella sighed. "So you and I have that in common."

I nodded. "Yes." I looked over into her eyes, expecting to see her brown irises, but was met with light crimson. "Oh!" I exclaimed. "Bella, you need to hunt." I stood up and pulled her with me. "Do you want Jasper to come as well?" I asked her. She nodded and the three of us jumped out the window and into the woods to hunt.

When we finished, Bella asked, "Why won't Sam let Leah see me?"

I looked at her. "He thinks it's too dangerous. He's convinced that you won't be able to control yourself and hurt Leah. Leah may try to defend herself and hurt you. Sam doesn't trust us either. He thinks that we will try to take revenge on Leah for killing Edward."

She shook her head. "I love Leah, I'd never hurt her."

"I know. Sam just doesn't think that," I said. I placed my hand on her arm. "You'll see her soon. Don't worry. You guys are soul mates, he can't keep you apart forever."

She nodded sadly. "I hope you're right."

Me too, I thought.


	14. Chapter 14

(Bella's POV)  
When we returned from hunting, Rosalie sat me down in the living room. "Did you know your funeral is today?"

I looked at her. "Really?"

She nodded. "That's where everyone else went."

"Why didn't you go?" I asked.

"I can't leave you here alone, now can I?" She smiled.

"I guess not," I replied.

Rosalie looked at me. "You know we can't stay here. Carlisle said that our cover story is we're going to Chicago for Edward's funeral, then we're staying there. Really we'll leave whenever you are ready."

I froze at this. "Wait, we're really leaving?"

Rose nodded but quickly said, "Only when you're ready."

"What about Leah?" I asked.

"I don't know, Bella," she said. "We'll figure this out when everyone gets back, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

(Jacob's POV)  
Seeing Bella lying on that bed, turning into the very thing I killed was too much for me. I had to leave. I tried to thank Rosalie for letting me see her, but when I opened my mouth I felt like I would throw up or sob. Neither of which I wanted to do in front of Rosalie. When I phased, Leah was on patrol. She saw the scene in my head and howled. The pain was so evident in her howl that my feet gave out underneath me. I dropped to my belly and stayed there from the sheer hurt I felt come from her. Paul was also on patrol and even he felt Leah's pain. It took me a few minutes to realize Leah had phased back.

I ran back to La Push and phased outside Leah's house. I walked in the back door; Seth was at the table with Sue. "Seth, go patrol with Paul until I get Leah."

He nodded and stood up. "She went upstairs." Then he was out the back door. I nodded to Sue and then went up the stairs. I slowly opened the door and was met with a sight I won't ever forget. Leah was sitting on her bed, staring at the wall, but not really seeing it. She was in a trance, eyes unblinking and unfocused.

I sat next to her and shook her gently. She didn't snap out of her trance, but instead whispered, "I'll never be with her again." I looked over at her. She looked worse than Bella. Her eyes had rings around them so purple they were almost black. She looked exhausted. Her eyes themselves looked empty. She looked like she had lost the purpose in her life, like she had no reason at all to live. Than again, maybe she didn't.

"Leah, look. You'll work this out with her I promise. Nothing will keep you guys apart. When she wakes up everything will be fine, trust me," I said, not fully believing myself, but I had to try something to get her to have faith in their love.

She shook her head and finally looked at me. Her sad, dead eyes boring into mine. "No. It won't ever be the same. Please go now." She closed her eyes and lay back on the bed. I stood up and left her house. This just wasn't fair to Leah. I don't understand what Sam's problem is that he couldn't let Leah at least see Bella. Bella was her imprint, Leah needed her. How would Sam like it if someone banned him from seeing Emily? He wouldn't. It was wrong of Sam to keep Leah away like that. If Sam took one good look at Leah in her current state, maybe he'd change his mind.

I shook my head and started toward my house. I went right inside and went to bed. Charlie was having Bella's funeral tomorrow. The story in town was she and Edward were killed in a fire in the cabin. There had been no real evidence of this, but there was nothing we could do about that. The next morning, I woke up and got dressed. I helped dad to the Rabbit and we started toward Forks. When we got to the church, Sue, Leah and Seth were already there, standing with Charlie and two other people. Billy told me they were Bella's mom, Renee and her step-dad, Phil. Leah looked as if Bella had actually died. Although to her it probably seemed that way, since Sam wouldn't allow her to see Bella.

My dad and I went inside and the service started. A few times, I looked over at Leah. Sometimes she had silent tears pouring from her eyes, sometimes she just had the glazed look in her eyes like yesterday. Most of the Cullen's were here, too. Only Rosalie was missing, so I guessed she was with Bella. Some of Bella's high school friends were here, I noticed. The only members of the pack that were here besides Leah and I, were Quil, Embry and Jared with Kim and Emily. So Sam couldn't make it, huh?

When the service was over, everyone went over to Charlie's house. Sue and Esme made a dinner for us all. When I saw Charlie was distracted talking to Carlisle and Billy, I motioned for Alice and Leah to follow me. We went up to Bella's room and shut the door. "Is Rosalie with Bella?" I asked.

Alice nodded. "Bella woke up this morning. She's doing really well, she and Rose hunted this morning with Jasper." She glanced at Leah to see how she was doing.

Leah kept her face blank. "Did she ask about me?"

Alice nodded. "Yeah, she wondered why you weren't there with her," she said softly.

Leah bit her lip to keep her tears from falling, but they fell anyway. Alice cautiously wrapped her arms around Leah's waist to comfort her. I put my arm around her shoulders and Leah surprised us both by putting her arms around both of us. Charlie chose that moment to walk in the room. His eyes saddened when he saw us comforting Leah. He sighed. "I was wondering where you kids got to." He walked over and stood in front of Leah, looking her in the eyes. "I wanted you and Bells to work out, I really did," he said.

Leah closed her eyes and nodded. "Me too," she choked out.

Charlie looked over at me. "Actually, I always thought Bella would end up with you, Jake. At least she had some taste." He glanced back at Leah, who was silently sobbing. Then he   
turned to Alice, "You were a good friend to Bella and I appreciate that. I'm sorry about your brother." He awkwardly hugged Alice and Leah and then shook my hand.  
He stood there, looking at the floor until Bella's mom came in. She smiled sadly at us, then she walked over to Bella's dresser and looked through it a little. Charlie slipped from the room during this time. Renee pulled out a necklace. It was of an angel with sapphire stones for wings.

"I gave this to Bella for her twelfth birthday. It was her favorite necklace. One day, she tripped in a doorway and a nail caught the chain. The chain broke and she cried for so long because she thought she wouldn't be able to wear it anymore. Phil got her a new chain, but Bella refused to wear it again because she was afraid she would break it, too." She smiled, deep in thought as she recalled the memory. "Leah, I want you to have it. Don't even think about refusing it, because I will go give it to your mother if I have to."

Leah slowly reached out and took it. She closed her hand gently around it and said, "Thank you."

Renee nodded and then hugged Leah. She hugged Alice and I, too. After saying a few words to each of us, she left. We stood in silence until Sue came in the room. "Leah, honey. It's time to go."

Leah quickly fled the room and went downstairs. I shared a look with Alice and we went down the stairs behind them. Everyone had left by now, only the Cullen's, Clearwater's, dad and me were here with Charlie. Sue excited the kitchen and said, "Well, I put the leftovers in the fridge, you should be good for a few days. I'll be back tomorrow just in case." She hugged Charlie.

"Thanks, Sue. I appreciate it." He sounded tired.

Sue nodded. "It's no problem. Let's go kids." She left then with Leah and Seth.

I was about to ask dad if he was ready to go also, but he spoke to Carlisle. "What are you going to do about Edward's funeral?"

Carlisle looked down. "We'll go to Chicago. That's where he was born and his family has a space there for him. We'll be leaving in a few days."

Charlie clapped his hand on Carlisle's shoulder. "That's a good plan" was all he said.

Carlisle smiled softly. "Thank you. I don't believe we'll be returning to Forks though. We'll remain in Chicago, perhaps."

I looked at him incredulously. Were they really leaving? Alice hadn't said anything about them leaving. Maybe this was just their cover, I hoped. Dad nodded and said to me that it was time to go. The Cullen's left ahead of us, so when we got outside I said, "Are you really leaving, or is that just a cover story?"

Carlisle answered. "We'll stay in Forks until Bella is ready to leave. Then we will see."

I nodded and then helped dad into the Rabbit. When we got home, I took dad inside then I left. I needed some time to think. I started walking down the street in no particular direction. Without realizing it, I had walked to Sam's house. I went inside and found him sitting on a chair in the living room with Emily on his lap, of course. Collin and Brady were lounging on the couch.

Sam looked up at me, "Something you need, Jake?" He looked like he had the world on his lap right now. Maybe in his mind he did. An imprint was all a wolf needed. So Sam sitting there with Emily comfortably perched on his lap, was all the happiness that man would ever dream of.

I shook myself from my thoughts and said, "Yeah. We need to talk."

His face turned serious. "About?"

"Leah."

"What about her?" he asked irritated already. Emily moved off Sam's lap to sit next to him. Sam immediately put his arm around her.

I sighed. "She needs to see Bella."

"No. It's too dangerous," he said.

"No, it isn't. Bella is her imprint, she won't hurt her." Damn it he's being stubborn.

"You don't know that."

"You don't know that she will either. Leah loves Bella and Bella loves Leah. They'll get past this and be happy. Why can't you let them?" I argued.

Sam glared at me. "Jacob, we're not discussing this."

I gave up and said, "Fine. Just think about this, what if you were Leah. What if this happened to Emily? I don't think you'd feel the same way."

He gritted his teeth as if he was going to say something but Emily stepped in, "Sam, maybe you should reconsider. Let Leah see Bella, if only for a little while. All the Cullens will be there and maybe some of the pack just in case?"

Sam shook his head. "No. What if she goes over there and Bella loses control. She could get hurt or Leah could hurt her. Leah wouldn't be able to live with herself if she hurt Bella. This could start a war with the Cullens. I'm doing them both a favor."

At that moment, Embry, Jared and Quil came in the back door and walked into the living room laughing. They took one look at us and sensed the tension in the air and quickly stopped the chatter.

After a few minutes of silence, Jared finally asked, "What's going on? What are we talking about?"

Sam answered, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

I glared at him. "I can't believe you're being such a prick about this. Leah can't live without Bella. Go over to her house and look at her, just take one look at her and you'll see."

"Jacob, I am done talking about this," he said exhaustedly.

The back door opened again and Paul, Seth and Leah walked in. They felt something in the air and all eyes focused on Sam and I.

I pointed to Leah. "Look at her, Sam. Can't you see that she needs Bella? It's killing her not being able to see her. You are killing her."

Sam glanced at Leah and his eyes filled with sadness. He looked down and said softly, "I understand that Leah needs to see Bella, but it is just too dangerous. Bella won't be able to control herself as a newborn. If Leah defends herself, she might hurt Bella and she'll never forgive herself. I won't have either of those things on my conscience."

I started. "Sam-"

"I am DONE talking about this!" He roared.

I started to waver under his command, but something in me awakened. I felt a power coursing through my veins. I squared my shoulders and answered him in an equally commanding voice, "Well, I'm not."

The air in the room shifted. I felt an incredible power inside me. Sam's eyes widened and he took a step back. "What have you done, Jacob?"

"I won't let you keep Leah away from Bella." I growled.

He glared at me. "They won't follow you. They'll never follow you."

"They don't have to. I'll just go on my own." I walked out the door, slamming it and leaving everyone dumbfounded behind me.


	15. Chapter 15

(Leah's POV)  
Did that just happen? Did Jacob really just become an Alpha of his own pack? My legs shook under me as I realized what I had just witnessed. I was pissed at Jacob for the simple fact that I had tried to do that so many times before. I never wanted to be Sam's little puppy. When I first phased, I had tried to break off on my own, Sam saw it in my head and was really pissed at me for it. Jacob had just done the one thing I had wanted besides imprint, to break away from Sam. If I couldn't do it myself, I was going with Jacob.

No one in the room had moved, much less spoke, I don't think anyone had even exhaled. I cautiously looked up at Sam, whom was staring at the far wall. Emily was standing next to him with her hand on his arm. Even after finding Bella, loving her, it still hurt me to see Sam and Emily together. I guess it always will.

Slowly, I turned toward the back door and walked out. I felt the room shift behind me and Sam called out, "Leah! Where are you going?" I didn't answer, just ran into the woods. 

Sam ordered me to stop, but it did no good. I'd given my loyalty to Jacob now; I was no longer under his command.

When I got to the woods, I phased. Jacob was thinking about something, so I stayed quiet until he finally realized I was here.

'Leah!? What the fuck are you doing out here?'

'I'm joining you Jake,' I said. He looked into my thoughts, and I let him. He was quiet for a while.

'You should go back to Sam,' he said firmly.

'No, I'm with you and you're not sending me back.'

'Fine,' he mentally sighed. I found him lying in a little clearing under a tree. I lay down next to him.

'Did you mean what you said back there? About me and Bella?'

'Yes. I don't think it's right for Sam to keep you from her.'

'So I can see her?' I asked hopefully.

Jacob thought for a minute. 'Let me go see her first, so I can be sure of how she's doing. Then you can see her.'

I was so excited, I leaned over and licked Jacob's face. 'Thank you, so much, Jake! This means the absolute world to me.'

He laughed, a barking sound escaping his throat. 'Alice said she woke up this morning, so I'll head over there now. You wait at the river behind their house, just in case, okay?'

I nodded my wolf head. 'Got it.' We raced off towards the Cullen's. I stopped at the river, just like Jake said. He leaped over and phased at the other side, then walked toward the house. I wasn't sure if I should wait in human form or wolf form. I decided on human form, so I went and phased, then sat on a rock next to the river. I looked down at my clothes. I'd worn this dress to Bella's "funeral", so maybe it wasn't the best thing to wear right now. It was black and definitely told the world I was in mourning. Well, too late to go home now. I picked at the grass next to my feet, waiting for Jake. I heard footsteps behind me, I jumped up and spun around, coming face to face with my little brother.

"Seth? What the hell are you doing here?"

He smiled. "I'm joining you and Jake."

I stared at him and then shook my head. "No, you're not. You are going home to Sam." I started to push him, but he grabbed my wrists.

"Look, Leah. You're my sister and I've seen you suffer enough without Bella. I'm not letting you run off here with Jake to the vampires' territory," he said firmly.

I smiled at him, tears filling my eyes. "Overprotective little brother, huh?"

He nodded and smiled brightly. "Of course." I hugged him and mumbled a thank you. He was the best little brother in the world. Our sibling moment was interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind us. I turned around to find Rosalie standing on the other side of the river. She leaped across the river and stood in front of me.

"Leah, just let me say that I've taken care of Bella for the past three days. I know it's been hard for you to be away from her and I want to kick Sam's ass for keeping you away from Bella. She wants to see you," Rosalie said. I processed her words. Rose sighed, and said with humor in her voice, "Like now!"

Seth gave me a little push and I leaped across the river. Seth and Rosalie were right behind me. I ran across the yard and stopped just outside the backdoor. My heart was pounding in my chest, but was pulling me inside towards Bella. I walked up the steps and pulled the door open. The second I did, it was like I had walked into a wall of Bella's scent. It was just the same as I remembered, strawberries, only sweeter. Much sweeter than before, but it wasn't too sweet. I walked forward, following the scent. I couldn't smell any of the other Cullen's or Jacob, only Bella.

Walking around the corner of the living room, the scent became exponentially stronger. And then, I saw her. My eyes connected with hers. For a moment, I actually expected them to be brown, but they were a soft scarlet. Her skin was paler than before, her lips a little fuller, her brown hair a little shinier, her breasts a little fuller, her stomach a little flatter- but she was still my Bella. She smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back. Her smiled widened and I noticed her perfect smile was just the same, my heart fluttered. She stood from her chair and walked toward me. I was frozen to my spot, only able to stare at her approaching form.

She was just within arms reach of me when I snapped out of it. She reached up and put her arms around my neck. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her up, she wrapped her arms around my waist. I covered my lips with hers. Her cold tongue pressed against my lips and I quickly granted her entrance. Her cold arms and legs were locked in an iron embrace around my body. Her cold tongue against my hot one caused a shimmer down my spine. Bella moaned into my mouth.

"I missed you." I finally was able to get out.

"I missed you, too," she said and ground her womanhood against my waist. I moaned. She knotted her hands in my hair. I pushed her dress up with my fingers. My hot skin met hers and she arched her back against me. Before I realized what was happening, my back was against a wall. I pulled away from Bella and looked up, realizing it wasn't a wall I felt, but the floor. I was lying on my back on the floor. Bella was straddling my hips.

She started to push my shirt up with her cold hands. The mere feel of her hand on my thighs caused wetness to pool there. Bella smiled at me and ripped my dress right off my body. I playfully glared at her. "Bella, that was my only dress."

She growled. "Well, I ruined it. What are you going to do about it?"

I growled back and leapt on her, I felt some floorboards breaking under us, but paid them no mind.

Bella squirmed under me. I ripped her shirt off of her, cursing her for wearing a bra. She gasped. "Oh, Alice is going to kill you."

I smirked. "And? Are you going to let her?"

Bella grabbed my face and pulled me down to kiss her. I reached down between us and slid my hand into her jeans. As I slipped a finger into her entrance, she moaned into my mouth and tightened her grip that she had on my hair. It was starting to hurt, but I liked it.

I had two fingers inside of her, she was nearing her climax when she suddenly dug her nails into my neck. I snarled, and Bella smiled. She did it again, harder and I squealed. Who knew I liked it rough? Bella orgasmed against my hand and then kissed me again. I withdrew my hand from her pants and she flipped us over so she was on top of me. We crashed into the Cullen's entertainment center. I looked up and realized the big screen TV was about to fall, out of pure instinct to protect my imprint, I rolled over on top of Bella.

She smiled and pinched my ear. "I'm immortal now, too, remember? You don't have to protect me." She kissed me just under my collarbone.

"Of course I have to protect you. It's in my blood." I kissed her temple.

She reached up in between my thighs and slid her fingers in between my folds. Once again, her ice met my fire and it was orgasmic. Literally. It was long before I came and Bella kissed me again. I pulled her against me so that every inch of her was pressed against some part of me. As a werewolf, my skin is hot and temperature doesn't bother me. Feeling Bella's cold skin against mine was heavenly. She was cold, but not too cold.

Bella's forehead rested against mine and we stared into each other's eyes. After a few minutes, I remembered something. "Um, Bella?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"Where are the Cullens?"


	16. Chapter 16

-Two Months Later-

(Leah's POV)  
"Morning sleepyhead." A sweet voice whispered as something soft and featherlike brushed over my cheek. I opened my eyes to find Bella's blazing golden eyes hovering over mine.

I smiled at her, but shook my head. "No, I want to sleep."

She smiled back, devilishly. Her hand slid graciously down my body until she reached the hem of my panties. She leaned her head down and whispered against my ear, "Are you sure sleep is what you want?" I rolled over so that I was on top of her and pressed my mouth to hers. Our tongues fought for dominance, but our fiery dance of passion didn't last long.

"Leah, your mother's here," Esme said from the bottom of the stairs.

I pulled away from Bella and sighed. "You knew she was coming didn't you?" I asked her.

She looked away and shrugged. "Maybe," she said softly, looking at me from the corner of her eye.

I hopped off the bed and started pulling on clothes. Bella followed behind me. I opened the door to our bedroom as she grabbed my hand. We walked down the stairs hand in hand. Bella was smiling, but I was a little too sexually frustrated to smile right now. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I spotted my mom and Esme sitting on the Cullen's new living room furniture. Two months ago, after Bella and I demolished their living room during our reunion, Esme had to purchase a whole new living room set. She wasn't mad, just gave us knowing smirks, which made me a little uncomfortable.

The past two months could have quite possibly been the best of my life. I'd moved into the Cullen's house and I got to be with my Bella everyday. In all honesty, I loved living here. Esme and Bella were excellent chefs, I always had Emmett to wrestle with, Alice bought me clothes every time she thought I needed some, and even Rosalie was an ally now.  
Seth and Jacob lived here as well. Carlisle understood after what happened with Sam that two packs couldn't live in the same place, so he offered to let us move in. Mom comes over a lot. She didn't at first because she was afraid of the Cullen's, but now she's more comfortable and dare I say it, friends with Esme.

Even though it had taken me some time to get used to Bella as a vampire, we were closer than ever now. My once clumsy and fragile Bella was now as strong as me, if not stronger with her newborn strength. She certainly wasn't clumsy either, she didn't realize it, or believe me when I told her she walked like a model on a runway. I'd seen enough of Alice's fashion shows to know what that looked like.

I'd even got my wish to wake up next to Bella every morning. She didn't sleep, but every night, she would lay with me and pretend to sleep. That was mainly here just lying still and closing her eyes. I loved it, every single bit of it. Esme looked up as Bella and I entered the room. Mom smiled at us, she'd never had a problem with my imprinting on Bella.

"Where's Seth?" I asked, looking around. He's such a mama's boy, he was always here when mom visited.

"He's out with Jacob," Esme said. Bella and I sat down on the couch. She played with my fingers for a minute, and then lifted my arm up so that she could lay her head on my lap.  
I gently ran my fingers through her hair. I looked up and found my mother and Esme smiling at me.

"What?" I asked.

Esme shook her head and said, "Nothing dear. We need to talk about something though."

Bella's eyes opened and she sat up. "Talk about what?"

Sensing Bella's sudden shift in mood, I moved closer to her and started rubbing her back. She relaxed a little, but she was still tense.

Esme looked at us seriously. "We need to move."

"Why?" Bella asked instantly.

"Carlisle looks too young for his age, and you kids are supposed to be in college by now. We need to figure out where to move to and when." Esme said.

"Oh." Bella looked down at her lap.

"Emmett wants to move to Switzerland. Something about mountains and rolling down them, I don't know," Esme said, rolling her eyes.

"Of course." Bella said, shaking her head. "I'm down for Switzerland, I guess. What about Seth, Jake and Leah though?"

Esme's eyes flickered to me. "You're all welcome to go with us, if you want. Are Jacob and Seth going to be so ready to just move though?"

My mom played with the hem of her jean skirt. "I'd really like for you guys to stay, but I know that won't be possible with Sam's pack. I don't think you're going to re-join Sam, either. So don't worry about me Leah. I'll miss you."

"Mom, I'm not leaving right now, chill out." I laughed. On the inside, I was hurting. I didn't want to leave my mom just yet.

Bella put her hand over mine, "Are you sure you want to leave your family though?"

I looked up into her golden eyes, filled with love and concern. I shook my head, "No. But I'm sure I want to be with you. I'll have to make this decision eventually. I want to go with you."

Bella smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."

I smiled back. I had found my life, I wasn't going anywhere. She knew that now.


	17. Chapter 17

(Jacob's POV)  
My paws pounded against the ground as I ran along the Cullen's borderline. Nothing had happened in months. The Cullen's had a few visitors, but they gave us a heads up before entering the territory. By this point, I was used to running around for hours and finding nothing in the process. Neither vampire nor wolf dared cross the Cullen's line, not with Seth, Leah, myself and a family of vampires waiting on the other side.

Today, much to my surprise, I caught the scent of one of the boys from Sam's pack. Every once in a while one of the boys patrols close to our line, so I wrote it off. My thoughts turning to our impending move. The Cullen's were moving with or without us. Leah was staying with Bella, that much was obvious. Seth and I had to choose, either go with the Cullen's and Leah, or rejoin Sam's pack. I was leaning toward the former.

Seth was a little more torn than I was. He's still just a kid. With his mom in La Push and Leah moving with the Cullen's, he really had a choice to make between his mother and sister. Of course, if he decided to stay with his mom, he would be forced to re-join Sam. He would surely face consequences from Sam for leaving in the first place. It was a difficult decision, one that was too big for him to make on his own.

Torn once again from my thoughts as the scent became stronger and I realized it was Sam himself. Now I could hear his paws hitting the ground coming toward me. A second set of pounding footfalls alerted me that someone was with him. What could he want? I wondered. I stopped in my tracks and waited for Sam and Jared, I think, to reach me. They paused long enough to phase into human form, so I did the same. Slipping my shorts on and walking toward them simultaneously.

Sam and Jared- I was right- came into my view. For the second time today, I was surprised. Shocked, almost at their appearance. They each had dark circles around their eyes as if they hadn't slept in days. A normal appearance for a wolf who spends his nights running around protecting his home from vampires. There was something else in their eyes, a sense of loss, loneliness. They stopped a foot away from me. Seeing them closer now, the sense of loss was stronger in their eyes. Now I was more than curious, I was worried.

"What happened?" I asked, reading the looks in their eyes. Not being able to go home, I hadn't been to La Push in months. Anything could have happened during that time and I wouldn't have known.

My dad and Sue Clearwater keep Seth, Leah and I up to date on most things, but nothing about pack business. Sam kept pack business to himself. Despite the fact we were all friends, I still see Quil and Embry regularly, Sam put the order out that no one is allowed to share anything with us without his permission. A tremor shook Sam's body. I instinctively took a step back, misreading the tremor as anger and a sign he was about to phase. Looking into his face made my heart clench. Something was terribly wrong.

Sam spoke finally, "Some of our imprints are missing."

Shock hit me like a bucket of cold water. "What the fuck are you talking about?" I said without thinking.

Jared's knees seemed to buckle at that point and to the ground he went. Sam looked at him, but said nothing. For a small moment I was glad not to have an imprint.

"We need to talk with you and the Cullen's. Maybe they can help us out," Sam said. "And I really don't feel like repeating this over and over. It hurts enough saying it once, I'd rather not repeat myself."

"Um," I was still dumbfounded by this news, "Okay, let's go back to the house. Seth and Leah are with the Cullen's." I knew it was dangerous taking them back to the Cullen's home, Rosalie still has a grudge against Sam that isn't likely to resolve itself anytime soon. Just the look in Sam and Jared's eyes made me agree to take them to the Cullen's.  
Together, we ran side by side to the Cullen's house in our human forms. Normally, I loved the feeling of tearing through the woods; the scent of the trees just after it rained comforted me. Wind in my face, tearing at my clothes, pulling at my hair; it all let me know I was still human. I could still feel. You'd be surprised the things you wonder about when you become a shape-shifter.

When we reached the Cullen's, we entered through the back door and through the kitchen to find everyone sitting in the living room waiting for us. No doubt they had heard us approaching. Perhaps catching Sam and Jared's scents and sensing there was a need for a big discussion. Sam and Jared remained standing next to the kitchen door while I took the empty seat next to Rosalie, whom I had formed a surprising friendship with. She smiled faintly at me, but her eyes were cold when she turned her face to Sam. I almost laughed. Yup, she still had a grudge against him for the way he treated Leah. Despite the fact Leah and Bella were perfectly happy and in love, Rosalie just didn't forgive someone easily.

Carlisle took over as he always did, "Tell us what's happened, Sam."

Sam looked at Leah. I caught a glimpse of something in his eyes as he took in her appearance. Leah was on the couch holding Bella's hand tightly in hers. He wiped all emotion from his face and turned to the rest of us.

"Last Friday, Quil was babysitting his young imprint, Claire. Her parents had gone out for an early dinner and he left their house around nine that night. The next morning he went to her house to pick Claire up so he could take her to the beach. Claire's mother was frantic when she opened the door. Claire had gone missing during the night. Someone broke in the house and kidnapped her," Sam said, his voice shaking the entire time.

Esme gasped. "Oh my gosh! Did they call the police?" Her hand circled Carlisle's arm. Carlisle patted her hand, an attempt to comfort her, maybe?

Sam shook his head. "Quil said he smelled a vampire in her bedroom and all around the house. A vampire took her, so there's nothing the police can do. Involving them would be dangerous to them and any other humans. We promised we'd find Claire as soon as we could."

Rosalie shifted in her seat next to me. She loved children as much as Esme, and hearing this upset her.

Sam looked at Jared, who cleared his throat. "Kim came to visit me last weekend," he started. Last I heard, Kim was planning to become a lawyer and was studying at Seattle University. Without her around every second of the day, Jared was a mess. Kim was determined to have her own life and career, especially since she was basically stuck in La Push for the rest of her life. Whatever children she and Jared had in the future would no doubt become shape-shifters themselves when they were old enough. Kim was smart in preparing for a future on the rez.

"On Sunday night, she drove back to school. She was supposed to call me when she got there, she always does. She didn't call me, thought. Sometimes she's tired and just goes to sleep and sometimes she goes out with her roommate, but she always calls to let me know she got there okay and what she's going to do so I don't worry."

He paused to take a deep, shaky breath. He closed his eyes, seemingly to will away tears. Leah spoke for the first time on the other side of the room, "Jared, whatever happened to her, we'll find her. She can't be dead or you'd know it. Just relax and finish the story." Her voice was calm and soothing.

Jared opened his eyes and looked into Leah's. Seeing something there, he took another deep breath and continued, "Monday morning her roommate called me and asked if Kim was going to be in class. I told her Kim had left the night before, but she said Kim never made it to her dorm. I went to Seattle to look around. Right outside her dorm was the scent of a vampire. It was faint because of all the kids in the hall mixing with it, but I definitely smelled it," he finished. He sat down on the couch next to Alice.

Sam took over once again. "Yesterday was Charlie Swan's birthday. You know ever since….Bella," Sam's eyes cut to hers and we knew what he was talking about. Charlie had been devastated after his only daughter "died". Sue Clearwater and Emily Young had been taking him food as often as he would allow. It was comforting for him.

"Well, Sue and Emily made him a big meal and a nice cake. They even went shopping for him and bought a bunch of new clothes for him," Sam said. Bella looked down at her hands, looking as if she could cry. Leah put her arm around her, an attempt to comfort her. While her intentions were good, it did little to comfort Bella.

"Emily took some food to him on yesterday afternoon. Billy and Sue went up and they had a little party for him with some of the other officers from the police station. Sue and Billy say that everyone left just after dark, that's when they left as well. Emily stayed longer to wash dishes and clean up for him. She told me she wouldn't be home until late.

"Around eleven, she still hadn't gotten home. I didn't think she'd be that late, so I called Charlie. He said that she had left around nine-thirty. Jared and I went to Forks and we found her car on the side of the road. She crashed into a tree and the driver's side door was open. There was a vampire scent all around the car," he finished, looking like someone was ripping his heart from his chest.

We were all silent for a long time. Carlisle finally asked, "Did you recognize the scent or scents? Was it just one or more?"

"As far as we can tell, there were two different vamps. We didn't recognize the scent but we know they were vegetarians. Friends of yours?" Sam's voice had a sudden edge to it, an iciness that matched the cold in his eyes.

I asked, "So, Claire, Kim and Emily are missing? Kidnapped by vampires?"

"Yes," Sam whispered.

"Is Emily's car still in the woods?" Carlisle asked.

Sam shook his head. "No, we took it back to our house." He looked down, pain uglied his face when he said the word 'our'. Maybe he was wondering if it would be their house again. Would he ever see his Emily again?

Carlisle stood, "May we have your permission to cross the border to check the scent ourselves? If they were friends of ours, they certainly aren't anymore."

Sam nodded. "I'll allow it this once. Let's go."


	18. Chapter 18

(Leah's POV)  
Sam turned to the back door to lead us out, but Rosalie leapt out of her seat and said, "Now wait just a damn minute."

We all turned to face her. She was standing in the international female war stance. Her feet apart, her shoulders squared, her face set in anger and determination. Her hands were right by her hips, she was very close to putting her hands on her hips. Every male in his right mind should have been terrified of Rosalie at that moment. You don't mess with a woman when she's in her war stance, especially a woman like Rosalie. I glanced around the room and sure enough, Carlisle, Jasper, Seth, Sam, Jared, and even Emmett had a slight trace of terror in their eyes.

Carlisle cleared his throat and asked softly, "Rose, what is it?"

Rosalie whipped her head around and glared at him. "This is all okay to you? That after everything he did to Leah and Bella we're just going to run down to La Push and save the wolves' girlfriends? When Edward turned Bella into a vampire, wasn't it him that wanted to start a war between us for Edward's stupidity?" She pointed her finger at Sam. There were many emotions written across Rose's face, hatred and anger being the two strongest ones. She wasn't anywhere near finished, though. "Wasn't it him that forbid Leah from seeing Bella, her own imprint, just because she could get hurt? He wouldn't let Leah see her imprint, but now that his has been missing for a day he comes running to us for help and you're telling me that we're just going to forget all this and become some saviors of imprints in distress?" Rosalie finished, her hands resting firmly on her hips now.

I was surprised she was defending Bella and I so fiercely. We had formed a friendship, sure, but if you have a strong friendship with Rosalie she would defend you to the death. If anyone possessing a penis in their pants and an ounce of intelligence in their heads, they wouldn't dare challenge Rosalie. Leave it to Sam to make me lose all faith in the male gender. He took a menacing step forward, Emmett jumped up to stand in front of his wife. Rosalie wasn't having any of that, she pushed him back so he was only next to her and slightly behind her. Rose definitely didn't need anyone fighting her battles for her. She could handle Sam, I was sure of that.

Sam nearly growled as he spoke. "First of all, I was thinking of Leah's safety and the safety of La Push when I asked Leah not to see Bella-"

"Asked her not to see Bella?! Is that some sort of code word for forbid her!?" She shot back.

Stupidly, Sam said, "No, I-"

Rosalie cut him off, "If I remember correctly you ordered her not to see Bella. As in forbid! Take credit for the work you've done Sammy, don't be modest." Rosalie shot back.

"Rosalie-" Esme started, but Rosalie wasn't having any of that.

"No, Esme, don't start. I'm not going to let Sam just come in here and demand we help him after he's done nothing but cause trouble for us." Rosalie's voice was as sharp as a razorblade.

"No one's demanding anything," Sam almost roared, his body shaking with anger.

Jacob cut in, "Don't you dare phase in here, Sam. You're on my turf and I won't allow you to put them in danger."

Sam's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, "Them? You don't want me to put them in danger? They're your natural enemy Jake."

"No, Sam, they're not. They've done nothing but good for us. Don't forget this is pretty much your fault that we had to join them."

Sam shook his head. "No, the only reason we become shape-shifters is because they're here."

"We become shifters because it's in our blood. You don't see everyone else turning into wolves to protect themselves do you? It's not their fault, don't blame them, blame our heritage," Jacob answered.

Sam stared at him dumbfounded for a few seconds. "Fine, fuck it. We'll do this ourselves." He spun around, but this time Carlisle stopped him.

"Sam, wait. We'll help you," he said.

Rosalie shook her head. "I won't."

"Rose, people are in danger," he said to her.

"No, people aren't in danger. Have you heard anything about other people disappearing? No. It is just imprints, which means that whoever kidnapped the girls isn't after random people. They're specifically targeting the wolves. Not us, none of my family is in danger, so I'm not risking it," she said firmly.

"Rose, you know Emily is my cousin," I said, speaking for the first time.

Her eyes cut to mine. "Look at what they did to you Leah. I know you have Bella now, but I know you remember how it felt to have them betray you like that. Sam may not have had a choice in the matter, but Emily did. An imprint can be whatever you want right, she didn't have to hurt you so she could be with Sam."

Bella spoke this time, "But the same thing happened with Leah and I. I was with Edward when Leah imprinted on me, remember? The imprint pushed us in the right direction. You can't fight it, Rosalie. We should help them," her voice was soft and sympathetic. I didn't want to help Sam either, despite the fact that Emily was my cousin. However, Bella offered to help and unfortunately I can't deny Bella anything. I'd follow her straight into a lion's den, should she lead me there.

Rosalie considered this for a moment. "I'll help, but only because you asked me to, Bella." She smiled a little at Bella and I, then her face turned hard and she looked back to Sam. "I'm not doing it for you, not after what you've done to my family."

Sam nodded. "Fine."

Carlisle motioned with his hand and said, "Well then, let's go check it out."

Sam turned and stomped out the door, Jared close behind him. Seth, Jacob and the Cullen's went out behind them. Bella grabbed my hand to pull me back a little when I started to follow. I saw Rosalie linger by the back door for a moment, probably waiting for Bella and I, then she went out the door, too.

I turned to face my love, who still wasn't used to her vampire strength and was gripping my hand rather tightly.

"Bella," I said laughing a little. I nodded to my hand.

"Oh!" She laughed and loosened her grip.

I asked, "What's wrong, Bells?"

As a human, Bella was an open book. Her emotions clearly splayed across her face. As a vampire, she was slightly better at hiding her emotions. The look in her eyes told me she was worried about something. "Do you think I'll be the next imprint to go missing?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "No. The other imprints are human and only went missing because their wolf left them alone. You are a vampire and never leaving my side, remember?" I smiled endearingly at her and she returned it.

"So you won't let any big bad monsters get me?" she asked this playfully, but her eyes were serious. Bella was my love, my imprint, my soul mate. I couldn't help but think about when Edward kidnapped her. Even being the fastest wolf in La Push I couldn't save her.

"Not a chance in hell," I promised her. She tilted her face to me and I met her lips with my own, knowing that's what she wanted. I grazed my tongue across her lips, but she pulled away.

"Leah, we have to go with them," she told me, sounding as unhappy about it as I felt. My anger toward Sam flared up just then. Even after he breaks up with me and I leave his pack, he still finds a way to make me do whatever he wants.

"Let's go then," I said sadly as I took her hand in mine again and leading her out the back door.

We followed Sam through the woods to La Push. I was running alongside my Bella. If I was the fastest wolf, Bella was the slowest vampire. That thought made me laugh, even though every time I run with her I have to run what I consider to be slow.

When we reached Sam's house, the rest of the La Push pack was waiting for us. Paul glared at Jake, Seth and I as we approached. He hated us for turning our back on them. I just rolled my eyes at him and smiled. If he wanted to hate me, well then he could do it while I smiled at him. Bastard. I saw Embry and Quil with a look of longing in their eyes. They missed Jake, no doubt. Some of the younger wolves wore expressions that I believe they learned from Paul, contempt in their eyes and a sneer on their features. They didn't even know us, I thought.

We stopped about five feet away from them. Sam led Carlisle over to Emily's car. Carlisle's steps faltered as he approached and when Sam opened the door, he froze. The scent of Emily and two bloodsuckers soon reached the rest of us. One by one, each of the Cullen's froze as they recognized the scent.

"What's going on?" Jacob asked.

Carlisle turned to face us. "It's Tanya and Irina."

After ten whole seconds of silence, Bella finally said, "Well fuck me."


	19. Chapter 19

Bella's POV  
Helping Sam Uley find his imprint was not on my list of things to do before we moved to Alaska. When I thought about it, I'd be happy if I never had to see him again. I was thankful for him the time he found me in the woods after Edward left me, but after everything that had happened since then, I'd say we're pretty much even on that. Especially considering the fact that Edward had kidnapped me, turned me into a vampire, ultimately his plan was to kill me. Making me into an undead was an accident, I guessed.

When Sam walked through the door with Jacob, venom pooled in my mouth. All I could think was about how he'd kept Leah away from me when I needed her most, going so far as to order her not to see me until he deemed it safe. I know that Sam would never go out of his way to check on me, so it was probable I'd never see Leah again, had it been up to Sam. Then he has the nerve to ask us for help to find Emily. My head and heart screamed 'NO!' I wanted to kill Sam for him even asking us for help. I had actually sat there and planned how I could leap across the room, tear out his throat and fight off Jared as well.

Something inside me wouldn't allow me to do that. I wasn't thinking about Sam and all the pain he was going through. If I was being honest, I wanted him to suffer. What had gotten to me was Claire and Kim. Claire was only a toddler, taken from her family in the middle of the night and locked up somewhere with vampires. Kim had always been nice to me when I had seen her those few times. She was helplessly devoted to Jared, in somewhat of a sick way and I find myself praying that I wasn't like that to Leah, and she was in school studying to be a doctor. She was going to do so much good in the world and La Push definitely needed a doctor equipped to deal with the supernatural considering all the wolves running around there.

Emily had been sweet to me when we first met and I couldn't help but like her. Then after I learned about what had happened with her, Sam and Leah, my opinion of her significantly changed. Leah was important to me; Sam and Emily had caused her pain that was unforgivable. I took a lot of pleasure seeing Rosalie put Sam in his place. Jasper gave me a few odd looks, wondering why I was so happy seeing Sam being knocked down a notch or two. He gave me a few sly smiles and let me enjoy it.

I could sense that Leah was agreeing with Rosalie, she didn't want to help Sam either, but something inside of me wouldn't let me say no to him. Mostly my brain conjured images of Claire; probably crying, definitely scared and most likely calling for Quil. My heart just wouldn't say no to my head, so I stepped in and convinced Rosalie to at least thing about helping him. I knew she was making no promises when we left the house for La Push.

Upon arriving at Sam's house, the wolves all seemed to have mixed reactions to our presence; glares from Paul, Quil seemed as depressed as Sam and Jared and Embry looked like he missed Jake. The younger wolves were the ones who pissed me off. Copying Paul's looks of contempt for Leah, though a few did look sympathetically at me. Their sympathy for me irked me more than the contempt for Leah.

I'd gotten used to the wet dog smell that Jake and Seth carried around with them, but having so many wolves around me at once was too much. They all smelled gross, except for Leah, of course. When Carlisle announced to the rest of us that the scents in Emily's car were Tanya and Irina, the only words I could speak were, "Well fuck me."

Not one person moved for a whole minute after I'd spoken until Sam finally asked, very annoyed, "Who are Tanya and Irina and why do they have Emily?"

"And Claire and Kim," Quil said, glaring at Sam.

Sam ignored Quil's words and looked at Carlisle, who said, "Tanya and Irina are extended family of ours. They are a family of vegetarian vamps in Alaska. I have no idea why they would do this."

Sam took a few steps forward, getting into Carlisle's face. I tensed as he got an inch away from Carlisle and spat, "Well then you better find out, leech."

"Get away from my father, mutt," Rosalie commanded him. He didn't turn his head, but still spat in her direction.

Rosalie let him off easy earlier when she only yelled at him for begging for our help, which he deserved. Now he wouldn't be so lucky, not only getting into our father's face and insulting him, but spitting at her as well. She moved quicker than I'd ever seen her before and punched Sam in the jaw, sending him tumbling backwards on the ground and landing face down a few feet from where he was before.

He jumps up as Paul lurches forward. Sam stops him from leaping on us, though. Emmett wraps both of his large hands around Rosalie's arms and pulls her pack against her. She's seething, but stays in his stronghold.

Sam squares his shoulders as he stands to his full height. I can see a couple of his teeth are in his hand and I can see that his jaw is broken and is beginning to heal.

"Sam, I should reset your jaw before it heals incorrectly," Carlisle said softly.

Sam snaps, "I don't need anything from you or your bloodsucking family! Get the hell out of La Push and stay in Forks if you know what's good for you!"

"And what are you going to do if we don't?" Rosalie demanded. "Stay around here until you need help then come crawling to us when you don't know what else to do? Did you ever think that maybe Emily and Kim weren't kidnapped? Maybe they planned this whole thing out. They got in touch with some of our family and set up this whole plan to make you think they were kidnapped." Her voice was low, and she was spitting venom.

Sam was shaking in anger and I didn't need Jasper's empathy to know the hatred was flowing openly between them. Rosalie wasn't quite finished with him. Her next sentence would be the most hurtful of all, "Did you ever think the imprints weren't happy about being forced into being your baby machines? Maybe they did set this whole plan up, and it was all to get away from you!"

Sam shifted into his wolf form and was ready to lunge at her. Rosalie crouched down to attack as well.

Suddenly, Leah ripped her hand from mine and stepped in front of Rosalie. "Sam, shift back," she demanded. He growled at her and I felt a little pang inside, wanting to defend her. Leah knows what she was doing though, so I stayed where I was and watched my woman. Sam took a few minutes before shifting back into his human form. He didn't even look at Leah as he asked her, in a not-so nice way, what she wanted.

"I want you to listen to me, Sam Uley and listen good. You came to us and asked for our help to find your missing imprints, then you have the nerve to argue with Rosalie in her own home. You bring us down here, we accept your help and you still call my family bloodsucking leeches. Now you almost attack Rosalie, and while I admit she may have gone over the line just now, you still deserve every bit of it," she told him in a deadly calm voice. I felt a little turned on by how she was speaking to him. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get her back to the house.

Leah continued, "Now I'm telling you this, we will find Emily, Kim and Claire, we don't need your help. You all can stay here."

"Not a chance in hell. I'm not leaving Emily with a bunch of bloodsuckers," he said firmly.

"That's not your decision anymore, Sam," Leah told him. What the hell is she doing? I started to wonder.

"You're too emotionally involved to handle this properly. You could get yourself killed by one slip up, I'm sure Emily would agree with that," she said.

Sam started to shake again. I started to have a mini panic attack because he was standing to close to Leah, so I darted over to stand behind her. Sam's eyes cut to me and he looked like he suddenly wanted to puke.

"If you only knew what your so called death did to Charlie. He's devastated about losing his only daughter but you're alive and well prancing around with Leah-" he started, but to my surprise, Jasper cut him off.

"That's enough, Uley," Jasper stepped around Leah and I to stand in front of us. "You know this wasn't Bella's decision. Edward did this to her and you know that she can't see Charlie because of it. I know Bella is as devastated about not seeing her father, I know that because I can feel it. None of this is anyone's choice. Now you've spoken to my father in a harsh way, however I can let that slide as Carlisle is his own man.

"But the way you talked to Rosalie, Leah and Bella is inexcusable. A man should never talk to a woman the way you have today. Maybe that's just my southern upbringing shining through, but you are not a man to me, Sam Uley. We will be leaving now and returning to our home. We will find your Emily," he looks at Jared, "we'll find your Kim," he looks at Quil, "and we'll find little Claire. When we do, that will be the end of our communication. We'll not be seeing you again."

He looks back at Sam, "After the way you treated my sisters today, I can only imagine there's a decent human being inside you somewhere, Leah had to have loved something about you. But after what I've seen, you're no better than Edward."

Sam swung his fist at Jasper, but his arm was caught in mid-swing. Jasper squeezed his wrist so hard we could hear the bones crunching. Jasper forced Sam to kneel on the ground in front of him and said, "I am over one-hundred-sixty years old, you are not even thirty, did you honestly think you would have the upper hand here?"

Jasper had a look on his face that scared even me at that moment. His eyes were cold and full of anger, his teeth were bared and when he spoke his voice was full of hatred. "As I said before, please allow me to repeat myself, we'll be leaving now and returning to our home. When we find your imprints, they will be safely returned to you and we never want to see any of you again for any reason whatsoever. Is my message getting through?"

Sam nodded and Jasper released him. We all turned as one and went into the woods. That was the most I'd ever heard Jasper speak in the whole two years I'd known him. I was surprised but also pleased, since he had been defending Leah, Rose and I. Alice always told me that Jasper was an overprotective fool, I guess now I'd just witnessed that.  
When we got back to the house, we all went our separate ways. Jasper, Jacob, Seth, Carlisle and Emmett gathered together to map out a plan to find the imprints and what we were going to do when we found them. Alice, Rosalie and Esme went into the kitchen to start cooking for the wolves.

I pulled Leah up to our bedroom to talk to her. She sat down on the bed as I closed the door, then sped to her side.

"What do you think Tanya and Irina want with the imprints?" I asked her, pulling her hand into my lap and enclosing both of mine around it.

She sighed slowly. "I don't know, it could be anything," she said honestly.

"I feel bad for Jared and Quil," I told her.

She was silent for a moment and then asked, "What about Sam?"

"Well, I feel bad that Emily is missing, but I just can't seem to make myself feel bad for Sam. He looked so sad when he first walked in here and my heart broke for him, but then the way he acted, I don't know. Maybe I feel like he deserves to have his imprint away from him so he can understand what you and I went through until Jake saved us," I said softly.

I'd never thought too hard about it until now, but Jake had done us a huge favor when he broke off from Sam's pack. He allowed Leah to see me again when she might be in danger of me. I would have to give him a hug later for it.

Leah looked at me and smiled, "I think you're kinda right. We'll find the girls, though."

I bit my lip and thought about what I'd asked her earlier. "You'll protect me from them right? Now that we know who it is that's kidnapping the imprints?" I asked her.

"Of course, Bells," she looked at me seriously, "I'm your wolf, your protector, nothing will happen to you. I swear it," she promised.

I could see the passion dancing in her eyes just before her eyelids slowly slid closed and she leaned toward me. I leaned toward her and our lips met in a soft, sweet kiss.  
Leah's hands trailed up my body as her tongue entered my mouth. Suddenly, my shirt was gone and I was on my back, Leah hovering over me. Her hands ghosted over my stomach and pinched my nipples.

My back arched and I moaned into her mouth. When I was first turned into a vampire, I was anxious about having sex with Leah in a house full of vampires and shape-shifters, but I'm slowly getting over that. There was an unspoken agreement between all of us that we didn't mention anything we happened to hear.

Leah's right hand left my breast and travelled slowly down my stomach, her fingertips just barely grazing my skin in a feather light touch. She undid my button and pulled my pants off of me, she barely let my underwear stop her from reaching what she was really after and slipped a finger inside me.

Leah masterfully worked her fingers against my sex as my moans became louder. As I neared my orgasm, I pulled her face down to mine and kissed her with all the passion I could muster and came against her hand.

"Leah, I love you," I said to her, staring into her lust filled brown eyes.

"I love you, Bella," she responded.

I smirked, "Well, let me just show you how much I love you." I pushed her back onto the bed and for the next few hours, we showed each other just how much love there was between us.


	20. Chapter 20

Bella's POV  
I sat at the Cullen's dining room watching the wolves eat their dinner, Seth and Leah on either side of me and Jacob across from me. Even though I didn't eat human food anymore, I still sat by Leah when she ate. I couldn't help myself, I just can't stand to be away from her even for a minute. Carlisle was in the living room with Jasper, Emmett and Esme. Alice and Rosalie were upstairs somewhere. We were all pretty confused as to why the Denali clan decided to kidnap some of the imprints from the reservation, but Carlisle was determined to find out. He'd been calling them all day, with no answer. We were all anxiously awaiting for that conversation. Leah finished her meal and rose to take her plate into the kitchen, I stood up as well, following two steps behind her. She started to wash her plate, but I took it and did it for her.

"I can do that myself, you know," she told me, her voice laced with mock anger.

I smiled, "I like doing stuff for you."

She started to thank me, but Carlisle's voice cut her off, "Hello? Tanya?" I shut off the water and dropped the plate in the sink. In the next second, Leah and I were both in the living room. Carlisle, Emmett and Esme were on their feet. Jacob and Seth came in a moment later, then Alice and Rosalie appeared behind Leah and I. Jasper remained seated on the couch, calm and cool. It was hard to believe that sweet looking vampire was the same person who had brought Sam Uley to his knees earlier. I smiled at the mere thought of Sam being knocked down a peg or two. After all, he did deserve that and more after what he did to Leah.

"Carlisle! How are you?" came the voice from the other end of the call. She sounded friendly enough, but from the look on Rosalie's face I could only assume that wasn't her natural tone.

"Tanya, I'm afraid I'm not calling on good terms," Carlisle stated.

Tanya was quiet for a long moment. "Stay out of this, Carlisle. You're a good friend and I don't want to see you hurt," she said.

"Why did you take them?" Carlisle asked.

She ignored his question and replied, "The wolves deserve what's coming to them." Leah stiffened next to me, I reached out and took her hand. She relaxed the slightest bit from my touch.

"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked.

"They killed Laurent!" Another voice shouted from the other end of the line.

Carlisle remained calmer than I would have in that moment, "Irina, they were protecting Bella and their reservation. And no matter what they did, it's no excuse for you to kidnap innocent human girls who have nothing to do with what the wolves did."

"What about Edward?" Tanya asked, her voice colder than her vampire skin.

I could see Carlisle was becoming more irritated now. "My son kidnapped a human girl and turned her against her will, while I'm not happy about his choice or the result of his actions, his demise was his because of his own actions." I felt a little pang of sadness when he said he wasn't happy about the result of Edward's actions, because well, my vampire status was the result of Edward's actions. Leah picked up on my sadness and squeezed my hand.

Tanya snarled. "She was never good enough for him, and now he's dead because of her."

Leah's eyes flashed with anger, I started to fear I was going to have to hold her back myself.

Carlisle spoke louder into the phone. "That's your opinion. What do the imprints have to do with anything? They're just innocent human girls, and one is only a child."

Tanya laughed a sinister laugh that chilled my undead heart. "Yes, the little one was especially tasty. The other two are sitting by and waiting for when we decide to end their miserable existence. You won't find them, so I wouldn't even try. However, if you can convince the wolves to surrender their lives to us, maybe we'll let the other two go. You have forty-eight hours to decide. Then one of them will die. If I'm feeling generous, maybe I'll turn her instead and return her to her wolf. How would the Alpha of the La Push pack like to have a vampire for a bride?" The phone line went dead at that moment.

Seth spoke first, "We have to save them."

"How? We don't know where they are," Rosalie told him. She was still against helping the wolves, but I knew if we were able to save the girls then she would gloat to the wolves that we were able to accomplish what they weren't.

"I know where they are!" Emmett exclaimed. We all turned to him questioningly. He took in our questioning glances and asked, "What?"

"How do you know, Emmett?" Rosalie asked, exasperated.

A look of hurt passed over his features at Rosalie's angry tone, but then he perked up and excitement crossed his face once again. "Well, earlier when Carlisle and Jasper were talking about getting in touch with Tanya, I knew that the frigid bitch wasn't going to tell us anything helpful. Well, last month remember I bought this spy tool that lets you know the exact location of anyone who calls you." He reached over and turned his laptop towards us and pointed at the map that was displayed on the screen.

"This is where they are," he smiled.

Alice jumped up and down, "Oh Emmett, you're a genius!" She hopped over the couch and tackled him into a hug.

Carlisle went over and studied the map, Jasper right behind him. Carlisle turned to us, "They're in what appears to be an abandon house. It's about fifty miles away from their house, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

Jasper nodded, "Let's work out an attack plan and we can set out."

"Should we include the pack in this?" Leah asked.

"No," Jasper said, "We can do this without them. We have more than enough of us here. Plus the emotions of Quil, Sam and Jared would be too heavy to handle. They could act out and hurt one of us." He looked down at his feet, then back at Leah. "Tanya said that the little one was especially tasty, so she was implying that she killed Claire. I don't think she was telling the truth, but if she was it would be too much for Quil to handle, should he find her. They will have no knowledge of this until we have the imprints safe."

Leah nodded. "I understand."

Jasper smiled, "Good." He turned back to Carlisle and Emmett, the boys crowding around plotting out our attack plan.

Leah tugged my hand, pulling me through the kitchen and out the backdoor. She sat down on the porch steps, and I sat next to her.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing, I just want you to stay behind me when we go get the girls. At this point, we only know about the two of them being there, but they could have more vampires waiting for us that we don't know about. So I want you to stay behind me, so I can protect you," she told me, staring deep into my eyes as she spoke.

I took a deep, unneeded breath and let it out slowly. "Leah, I'm invincible now, I don't need you to protect me."

"I want to, Bells," she told me. "I've been in fights before, I know what I'm doing. You're inexperienced, since you're only a few months old, you would be best just staying behind me."

"Actually, I would prefer if you stayed behind me," came Jasper's voice from behind us.

I gritted my teeth. "Seriously, I don't need you guys to protect me, I can take care of myself. I'm a newborn, so I'm stronger than you guys," I said.

"For now, you are, but that doesn't mean you know how to fight. I'm the most experienced fighter, you'll be safest behind me," Jasper said. "Besides, I've already plotted it out." He held up a piece of paper that had the map on it. I took it and Leah leaned over to study it with me. "They seem to hold a grudge over you because of Edward, I'm afraid they would attack you more aggressively than the others."

"Fine," I gave in. "But if anyone tries to attack you from behind, I'm all over 'em," I said,

Jasper laughed. "I should hope so," he said, then looked at us seriously. "We're ready to go now, are you two ready?" Leah and I both nodded as the rest of the family came out of the house.


	21. Chapter 21

(Leah's POV)  
Bella and I stood to go with the family into the woods. We all stopped when we noticed Seth was still standing next to the porch. "What's wrong, Seth?" I asked my brother.

He looked up. "I just don't feel right about keeping Sam and the others out of this. Can't we go together?"  
Rosalie rolled her eyes, but Carlisle thought about it. He went inside the house, we could hear him dialing Sam's number and talking to him. When he came back out he looked regretful and said, "They're on their way."

Rosalie huffed, clearly not happy with this. "That was a mistake, they'll only get in our way and let their emotions get the best of them. We should make them stay here."

Carlisle fixed his gaze on her, "Rosalie, they want to save their imprints, we can't exclude them."

We didn't have to wait long for Sam and the others. Sam came barreling out of the tree line with Paul, Jared, Quil and Embry behind him. Guess he left the younger ones at home.  
Carlisle showed them our attack plan and we all set off. Just outside the city the Denali's lived in, Jasper sent Rosalie and Alice ahead. Alice was going to be far away from any wolves so she could try and get a read on the future. Using her visions to tell how many vampires were inside.

We all followed Jasper's plans and went to the position he'd pointed out to us. I was in wolf form with Carlisle and Embry.

Suddenly, Alice appeared through the trees next to us and said, "They have about ten vampires in there. Jasper says since we still have them outnumbered, we'll all go inside. Wait for his signal." She darted off to tell the others what Jasper had said. Jasper's figure became visible through the tress and he waved his hand to go. Simultaneously, all of us emerged from the trees. Emmett kicked in the back door and Jasper tore off the front one.

We didn't have time to think, we just attacked. I was hit in the face, causing me to be dazed for a moment, but I recovered and swung my paw at the vampire who attacked me. I hit him in his side, sending him flying into the wall next to us. I instantly pounced on him and locked my jaws around his head, separating it from his body. Dropping his head to the ground, I turned, but was promptly hit in my side, a blond vampire bitch clinging to my back. I tried to reach around to get her off but she held tight. She opened her mouth and I realized she was about to sink her teeth into my skin. I had a sudden vision of Bella, if I should die because of vampire venom, who would be around for her?

That was not about to happen. I violently shook my body side to side, the vampire bitch lost her grip and started to claw at my back. I growled from the pain, but started to shake her again. Another body suddenly flew into her, tackling her to the ground. I realized it was little Alice, swooping in from somewhere to save me.

She hit the blond in the face, an earsplitting crack sounded throughout the room. The blond kicked at Alice and started screaming, "How can you defend them!? We're family!"

The blond kicked again, connecting with Alice's shoulder, sending Alice tumbling to the floor. I grabbed the blond by her leg before she could get up. Alice jumped to her feet and pounced on the blond. I roughly jerked my head sideways, tearing the blond's leg away from her body. She screamed, and continued screaming until Alice and I had completely dismembered her. She cursed us both and spit at us as Alice gripped her head to finish her off. Alice kicked the blond's head out of the way and gasped suddenly, "Bella!"  
Panicking, I looked to my left and my heart nearly came out of my chest when I saw Bella get tackled to the ground. I bounded across the room and tackled the vampire off my love. Acting on instinct, Bella lurched off the floor and onto the vampire. The vampire swung at her, but I jumped out and caught his arm in my mouth. The vampire screamed as Bella placed her hands on either side of his head and ripped his head from his body.

I managed to tear off his other arm before I heard Emily's scream, "Sam!" I whirled around, all the commotion in the room stopped. I looked in the direction that Emily's voice had come, all I saw was a vampire….

Emily. Her copper skin looked whiter, her scars were healed, almost non-existent on her face. I looked into her eyes, once a deep brown but now they were a light crimson. My eyes widened at the realization, Emily was a vampire.

My eyes searched for Sam, who was standing still as a statue, staring at Emily. Then he tilted his head back and let out a heartbreaking howl. No one in the room moved a single centimeter. I glanced around, noticing that the only vampires in the room were the Cullen's, and now Emily. I guessed we'd either killed the other vampires, or they ran off without us noticing.

Carlisle broke the tense silence, "We need to burn these pieces now." Everyone came back to life, so to speak, then and we gathered all the pieces of the fallen vampires. Jasper's surprise attack plan had worked like a charm. None of us were seriously hurt. I started to phase back, but I realized I didn't grab my clothes before we left the house, and I was not about to go naked here.

Alice appeared at my side and handed me some clothes. I took them in my mouth and went down the hall to phase. I quickly dressed and returned to the room where the rest of the family was waiting.

Bella was walking into the room with Claire in her arms and Kim by her side. Kim had a few cuts and bruises, but was mostly unharmed. She ran straight into Jared's arms. Claire didn't appear to have a scratch on her, but that didn't stop Quil from looking her over three or four times.

We all turned to Emily, who was still being stared at by Sam. He had yet to speak a single word. He shook his head and finally whispered, "Why?"

Emily looked down. "They bit me right after we got here. I only just woke up this morning. I didn't know what happened, I just know that when I was driving home from Charlie's house I was human. I woke up this morning as a vampire," she looked up into Sam's eyes. "You still love me right?"

Sam didn't speak. Jasper spoke up, "If you only just rose this morning, it's too dangerous for you to be around any wolves right now. You should come home and stay with us for a few days. When your control is better, you can go home." His eyes shifted to Sam, "That is, of course, if Sam will allow vampires in La Push."

Emily looked as if she could cry, if she were still human. She nodded to Jasper and said, "I'll stay with you guys. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hurt anyone, especially one of the wolves or anyone on the reservation."

Sam closed his eyes and said, "I can allow that." Esme went to Emily's side and led her out the back door so she wouldn't be near any wolves. Emmett and Jasper followed them.

Rosalie gritted her teeth. "So when Edward kidnaps Bella and turns her into a vampire against her will, you forbid Leah from ever seeing her again."

Carlisle broke in, "Rosalie, not now."

She ignored him, "You didn't think of how they would be affected from being apart, did you? And now that your fiancé has been kidnapped and turned against her will, you're ready to open up the gates of La Push and allow her to still live there, despite the fact that she's a vampire? A bit hypocritical don't you think? You wouldn't let Leah see Bella but you're changing the rules to allow Emily to stay with you?"

Sam just stared at his feet before saying, "This is different."

"How? How is this different?" Rosalie demanded. "Is it different because Bella was, as you called her, a leech lover, because she used to date a vampire? Is that why? Or is it because Leah is your ex-girlfriend and you got some secret pleasure from being able to control her?"

My eyes widened at her statement, but I wasn't about to interrupt Rose. She was glaring daggers at Sam. "Or is this situation different because you're the Alpha and you can do what you want, regardless of what's fair, or safe or even smart? If Kim had been turned would you still allow Jared to see her?"

Sam didn't answer, but Rosalie didn't expect him to. She continued on, "No, you wouldn't. You would banish Kim from La Push and would probably become a part of our family as Bella had and Jared would join Jacob's pack just so that he would be able to see her. But it wasn't Kim who was turned, it was your precious Emily. Tell me, Sam, how will it feel when Emily decides she wants to join our family, what will you do? Join Jacob's pack and serve under him, as is your rightful place? Or will you just cut Emily from your life. She is a vampire after all."

Sam roared and leapt across the room, lunging for Rosalie's throat. She kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying across the room. She started to pounce on him, but I wrapped my arms around her stomach, holding her back. Carlisle stepped in front of her and grabbed her face. "Rose, that's enough," he said firmly. Jared and Embry helped Sam to his feet. Sam pushed them off and ran out the front door, leaving us all behind.

"I guess it's time for us to go, then," Carlisle said. I released Rosalie and we filed out the door.  
________________________________________  
Six Months Later  
Emily had adjusted to her new vampire status exceedingly well. She hadn't seen Sam since the day she was turned, but she knew she'd see him soon enough. Her eyes were already golden. Since Emily had been staying with the Cullen's, Leah knew it wouldn't be safe for her at the house. So Bella and Leah had moved away, breaking away from the Cullen family for a short time. They were living in a small flat in London. They enjoyed having time alone without the sensitive ears of others listening in. The girls would be rejoining the Cullen's soon enough. After Sam had marched out of the Denali's house, he'd stepped down as the Alpha and Jacob had taken over, merging the two packs to one.  
Emily would be going back to Sam and the Cullen's would all be moving to Sweden. Leah and Bella would be flying out soon. Though Leah would be across the globe, she'd promised her loyalty to Jacob and would assist him in any way if he needed her. Thinking back on the whole situation, Leah found it comical the way her relationship with Jacob had changed. She'd been so resentful toward him for pining after Bella, then she'd truly hated him because he'd kissed Bella and told her awful things. It seemed like so long ago, and after he'd taken over the Alpha position from Sam, she'd forgiven him for what he did wrong.

Bella placed her last suitcase by the door. She already had two packed full and waiting by the door with Leah's three bags. Bella clapped her hands together and said, "Well, that's everything. Are you ready?" she turned to face her girlfriend. Leah was sitting on the couch in a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, ready for the long flight to Sweden. She smiled at Bella, "Yup, I'm ready." Bella returned her smile and walked slowly over to Leah.

"We have a little bit of time before we have to leave, you know," Bella purred seductively.

Leah licked her lips and sat up. Bella had become more open with sex since she didn't have to worry about Emmett teasing her about it later on. Leah found that her girlfriend was quite the sex kitten. Bella liked the kink, too.

Bella crawled into Leah's lap, straddling her and pushed her lips against Leah's. Her tongue danced around with Leah's, her hands slipping under Leah's shirt to fondle her breasts. Leah moaned quietly and Bella smiled into their kiss. Leah pushed her lover back on the floor of their flat, straddling her waist. Bella reached up and pulled Leah's shirt over her head.

Leah was briefly glad she didn't rip it, as they didn't have any other clothes, since everything had been packed up. Leah didn't have time to think about it too much, though, as Bella caught her nipple in her mouth. She swirled her tongue around Leah's nipple, and pinched my other one between her fingers. With her mouth and one hand busy, she reached into Leah's pants with her other hand. Wetness instantly pooled between her legs as Bella's icy touch found Leah's hot, throbbing center.  
Leah growled and pushed her away so she could kiss her. Trailing kissed along her jaw line, and attacking her neck with her lips. Bella's hands tangled into Leah's hair, trying to force my kisses lower. She flipped them over so she was on top of Leah. Her hand found its way back into Leah's pants and began working her magic between Leah's folds.  
Leah pushed her hips against Bella's hand, losing herself in the sensations Bella was creating in her body. Leah's back arched against Bella, pushing their breasts together and Leah came against Bella's hand.

Bella pulled Leah's face to hers and kissed her deeply as Leah slipped her hand into Bella's pants to return the favor. Leah wanted nothing more than to taste Bella's sweet juices that were running down her fingers, but she knew they had to be leaving for the airport soon. When Bella came, she screamed out in ecstasy and kissed Leah, her tongue tasting sweet against Leah's.

Leah withdrew her hand from Bella's pants and stood up, holding out her hand to Bella and pulling her to her feet. Bella laced her fingers through Leah's and leaned up and kissed her again. "I love you," she breathily whispered against Leah's lips.

"As I love you," Leah whispered back. Bella smiled and sat back down on the couch.

"I can't believe everything we've been through, with Edward and Sam, you know?" Bella said,

Leah nodded. "We're going to do a lot more though. Sweden is just the first of many places we're going to live in. I'm excited about that," she said.

Bella nodded. "I just hope the rest of our existence won't be filled with so much drama," she said it as a joke, but both girls knew she was dead serious.

Leah nodded in agreement. "Even if we do face more drama, I won't let anything happen to you."

Bella smiled. "I know, you've kept your promise so far. I guess I owe you something now," she said as she leaned up to kiss Leah's cheek.

"That you do, Bella," Leah smiled.

"Leah, what are we going to do?" Bella asked suddenly, her voice had a trace of panic.

Leah's features twisted in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Bella pulled away from her and turned on the couch to face her love. "What are we going to do about us? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. You know since I'm a vampire I'm immortal. So what about you?" she asked softly.

"Bells, as long as I keep phasing I'll live forever too, you know," Leah told her. She took Bella's hand in hers.

"I know, but I couldn't ask you to do that," she almost whispered.

Leah scoffed. "You don't have to ask me. Besides I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for me," she said.

Bella looked up. "What do you mean?"

Leah smiled. "Why would I want to live a normal life and then die when I can be a werewolf forever and stay by your side for all of eternity?"

"Do you even want to be a wolf forever? Do you like it that much?" Bella asked.

Leah thought about this. "I didn't like it before, but I do now. I like feeling the wind in my fur, I like the speed and I like knowing that I can protect you, even if you don't need to be protected," she said quickly when she saw Bella was about to speak.

Bella smiled at this and lay down on the couch, Leah lying down next to her. Bella tilted her head to look at Leah and said, "So I get to stay like this with you forever?"

Leah nodded. "For all of eternity."

Bella pressed her lips to Leah's. The kiss held so much emotion for both of the girls. It was a kiss full of love and promise; it was a promise that their love would last for eternity.

The End


End file.
